Volume 14 Number 019

The Last Full Measure – Ernest King

Lead: For 400 years service men and women have fought to carve out and defend freedom and the civilization we know as America. This series on A Moment in Time (is presented by the people of ______and) is devoted to the memory of those warriors, whose devotion gave, in the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg, the last full measure. Content: During World War II, the organizer of the U.S. Navy's contribution to victory was a determined, often grumpy and taciturn, Scot, born November 23, 1878; Fleet Admiral Ernest Joseph King. Raised by his father, a hard working railroad foreman of Scottish heritage, King secured an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned in 1903. His career in the Navy reflected a single-minded pursuit of competence. While most naval officers would be content to specialize in one or another of the Navy's divisions, King sought out training in each area of service activity. He taught at the Naval Academy, trained on and commanded , qualified as a naval aviator in half the time usually set aside for training. The coming of global conflict cut short his expected retirement plans and in December, 1941, King was appointed in Chief of the U.S. Fleet. The name of this position was changed in abbreviation to COMINCH from the traditional CINCUS which in the aftermath of certainly seemed appropriate. strategic policy during World War II favored the war against Germany. Franklin Roosevelt honored this commitment to Europe and ordered that men and material be diverted to the war against Germany. While King supported this strategy he also argued forcefully that pressure should be kept up against the Japanese or rooting them out of their southern Pacific gains would be that much harder. King conducted a form of bureaucratic guerrilla warfare on behalf of a speedy conclusion of the war in Europe so that he might obtain more adequate forces in the Pacific. Through skillful appointments of personnel, organization, growth of the Navy to almost four million men by 1945, King was able to direct U.S. naval operations to pivotal victories in the Pacific. After the threw the Japanese off balance, King pressed for an attack in the Solomon Islands in the late summer of 1942. Denied Army participation, he decided to pursue the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tu-'lag-i with only Naval and Marine forces. This nearly proved disastrous, but the Marines held and Guadalcanal was taken. With the coming of the new carrier forces in the autumn of 1943, the fate of Japan was sealed. Ernest King was accorded his fifth star at the end of the war in 1944. King published his memoir, Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record, in 1952. He died in 1956. At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts. Resources Buell, Thomas B. Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.

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