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Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
“Our Navy” mag, 1 September 1946
Chester W. Nimitz : “Every Man’s Admiral”
(excerpts from “OUR NAVY” magazine, 1 September 1946)
He hailed from Fredericksburg, Texas, with a sea-faring family history. It seemed natural he would choose a Navy career, but in high school, his friends made plans for the Army. Chester decided he would compete with them for West Point.
When Nimitz became eligible to take the exam, he learned there were no more appointments available in his district, except for Annapolis. The winner of a competitive examination would land him that assignment. He entered in 1901 with Royal Ingersoll and William F. Halsey, Jr.
In his first year, he showed up at the boat dock, his 150 pounds barely filling his gym suit, and tried to get a place on the boat crew. The coach thought he was a bit small, but Nimitz said, “Give me a chance.” He got that chance and became the stroke oar in the 4th crew. They did so well, the Texan was promoted to the 3rd crew that consequently kept winning. Out-weighed by 35lbs., Chester would stroke the seven men in the first boat.
At 23-years old at the Asiatic Station, he impressed his superiors as an officer fit for submarine service. With his executive abilities, remarkable memory and exceptional patience, he arrived at the 1st Submarine Flotilla for his training.
The first sub Nimitz took command of was only the second one accepted by the Navy, the Plunger. Not even named for a fish, he called it “a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a whale.” He then proceeded to other classes of underwater craft.
One day in March 1912, while on the Skipjack, W.J. Walsh F2c was washed overboard. He couldn’t swim. Nimitz was the first to dive into the water and reach him before he went under, as they were both being carried away in the tide. This high character and confidence his men felt here, followed Chester Nimitz through all his commands.
In WWI, he served as Chief of Staff to Admiral Samuel S. Robinson, commander of the U.S. Submarine Forces. Because of his rank, he soon found himself in the surface fleet and he continued to climb.
When Nimitz arrived on the still smoldering Pearl Harbor to take over command of the Pacific Fleet, the CinCPac staff that had served under Admiral Kimmel nervously presumed the ever-efficient Nimitz to hand them transfer orders. Instead, he said, “I did not come here to mete out punishment. I know what you men are expecting me to say. I should be honored to have the entire staff stay with me and work until victory is ours.”
He proved he could pick out top commanders by choosing Spruance to take over Halsey’s ailing Task Force. and Comdr. Eugene Fluckey, also an ex-skipper of the submarine Barb, for his personal aide. From there we know of the exploits of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz during WWII.
For a man who had no more than the average youth’s advantages, I believe we can all agree he had done quite well. Fleet Admiral Nimitz passed away 20 February 1966, 4 days before his 81st birthday.
This magazine was supplied by Jeanne Salaco, blog “everyone has a story to tell”. Thank you once again, Jeanne!
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Military Humor –
submarine magic – CLICK ON TO ENLARGE AND READ
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Farewell Salutes –
Richard Berky – Bluffton, OH; US Army, WWII, ETO
William O. Chase – Sacramento, CA; US Army, Korea
Honor Gracefully
John E. Deist III – Sterling, KS; US Army, Iraq, Sgt. Major (Ret. 21 y.), Bronze Star
Frank A. Kulow Jr. – Bailey, CO; US Coast Guard, WWII
Wrilshxer Mendoza – CA; US Air Force, Afghanistan, 82nd Airborne Division, (Ret. 22 y.)
I.G. Nelson – Plymouth, IA; US Army Air Corps, Japanese Occupation, 11th Airborne Division
Robert Oxman – Natick, MA; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Amelia Pagel – Temple, TX; Civilian, WWII, Lackland Air Force Base, aircraft repair
Robert T. Shultz – Arlington, VA; US Navy, Vietnam, Annapolis Class of ’50, Cmdr. (Ret. 26 y.), Bronze Star
Jack G. Thomas – Kalispell, MT; US Navy, Vietnam, fighter pilot / NV National Guard, Colonel
Marguerite Wood – NJ; Women’s Royal Naval Service, WWII
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MONDAY?! Uh-oh, are they looking at me now?
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June 1945 for the Navy
USS Langley, June 1945
After sending Sherman’s US Navy Task Force 38.3 to Leyte for a rest period, Halsey ordered RAdm. Radford’s Task Force 38.4orce northward on June 2 to strike the airfields on Kyushu, the southernmost Japanese main island. Halsey and McCain remained off Okinawa. When Radford returned on the afternoon of June 3, Halsey sent Task Group 38.1 southeast to rendezvous with Rear Admiral Donald B. Beary’s Service Squadron 6. Ships and search planes reported a tropical storm moving up from the south.
The Missouri and Shangri-La headed southeast with Radford’s group, and Halsey ordered the amphibious command ship Ancon to monitor the storm. On the evening of June 4, Task Group 38.4 joined Clark’s force and Beary’s fueling squadron, and they all headed E-SE. At this time, radar operators aboard the Ancon sighted a typhoon, but the ship’s report did not reach Halsey until 1 the next morning.
USS Pittsburgh, Typhoon Connie, 1945
Course changes were made, and there was much feverish plotting aboard the Missouri and other ships through the night and into June 5. Halsey did not want his fleet scattered as before, and he hoped to find better weather so that his flattops could fend off kamikaze attacks. But the barometer was falling, and the howling typhoon closed in. While Radford’s group steamed through fairly calm seas 15 miles to the north, Task Group 38.1 was sucked into a maelstrom of high winds and mountainous waves. Clark ordered his ships to stop their engines and heave to.
Beary’s fueling group, meanwhile, struggled against 75-foot waves and wind gusts up to 127 knots as it passed through the eye of the typhoon. His 48 ships were “riding very heavily,” he reported, yet only four—two jeep carriers, a tanker, and a destroyer escort—received serious damage. Clark’s group passed through the eye half an hour after Beary’s, and almost all of his 33 ships suffered some damage, but none were sunk. The cruiser, Pittsburgh had 110 feet of her bow section torn off, and Clark’s four carriers—the San Jacinto, Hornet, Bennington, and Belleau Wood—were battered. Clark and Beary lost six men killed or swept overboard and four seriously injured, 76 planes were lost.
USS Hornet, June 1945
The other TF-38 ships damaged in the typhoon included the battleships Missouri, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Alabama; the escort carriers Windham Bay, Salamaua, Bougainville, and Attu; the cruisers Baltimore, Quincy, Detroit, San Juan, Duluth, and Atlanta; 11 destroyers; three destroyer escorts; two oilers, and an ammunition ship.
Halsey was aware he would have to face another court of inquiry and took the offensive. In an angry message to Admiral Nimitz, he complained that early-warning messages were garbled, that weather estimates conflicted, and that coding regulations critically delayed the Ancon’s message. The Third Fleet, meanwhile, soon went back into action. On June 6, 1945, Clark’s and Radford’s groups again provided air support off Okinawa, and Radford’s carriers resumed strikes against Kyushu on the 8th. U.S. troops gained the upper hand on Okinawa, the kamikaze attacks tapered off, and TF-38 retired to Leyte Gulf on June 13 after 92 wearying days at sea.
USS Bennington, June 1945
Admirals Halsey, McCain, Clark, and Beary were ordered to appear before a court of inquiry aboard the aging battleship USS New Mexico anchored in San Pedro Bay, a Leyte Gulf inlet. Presided over again by the harsh Admiral Hoover, the tribunal convened on June 15 and deliberated for eight days. Blame was placed squarely on Halsey and McCain, with the court concluding that the main cause of the Third Fleet’s damage was Halsey’s “extremely ill advised” change of course from 110 to 300 degrees at 1:34 am on June 5. McCain, Clark, and Beary were indicted because “they continued on courses and at speeds which eventually led their task groups into dangerous weather, although their better judgment dictated a course of action which would have taken them fairly clear of the typhoon path.”
Hoover recommended the reassignment of Halsey and McCain, and Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal was reportedly ready to retire Halsey. When the court’s finding reached the Navy Department, Admiral King agreed that the two officers had been inept and, with the weather data available to them, should have avoided the typhoon. But Halsey was a national hero, and King had no wish to humiliate him. It would tarnish the Navy’s triumph in the Pacific. King decided to take no action, and Forrestal agreed.
Admirals Halsey & McCain, March 1945
McCain, however, received no such consideration. Nimitz had long doubted his competence, and it was decided that it was time for him to go. He was ordered by the Navy Department on July 15 to hand over command of Task Force 38 to Admiral John H. Towers and, after a furlough, become deputy head of the Veterans Administration. But McCain, worn out and emaciated, died of a heart attack on the day after he returned to his Coronado, California, home on 6 September 1945.
Halsey, meanwhile, sailed back to America and was greeted in San Francisco and Los Angeles by blaring bands, sirens, whistles, and cheering thousands. His reputation had been tarnished, yet he emerged from the war as a fighting admiral revered by the men who served under him.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Naval Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
Donald Anthon – Baton Rouge, LA; US Coast Guard, WWII, PTO, LT., Academy Graduate
Dean Bailey – Mobridge, SD; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Gardiner’s Bay
John Casey – Phoneix, AZ; US Navy, WWII, corpsman
Robert Danzig – Albany, NY; US Navy, Korea
Edward Finley III – New Orleans, LA US Navy, Top Gun pilot
Ed Jost – Glencoe, IL; USMC, WWII, Sgt., machine-gunner
Gordon Olson – Seymour, CT; USMC, WWII
Thomas Suddarth – Concord, MO; US Navy, WWII, USS Honolulu & Klaskanine
Warren Venable – Memphis, TN; US Navy, aerial photographer
Eugene W. Wicker – Coweta, OK; US Navy, WWII, Seaman 1st Class, radioman, USS Oklahoma, KIA
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Pacific Paratrooper 