Ernest J. King
Ernest Joseph King (born November 23, 1878 in Lorain , Ohio , † June 25, 1956 in Portsmouth , New Hampshire ) was one of the most important admirals in the US Navy with the rank of Fleet Admiral during World War II .
biography
family
King was the son of James Clydesdale King and Elizabeth Keam King. He was married and had seven children.
King was a member of the Freemasons at George C. Whiting Lodge, No. 22 .
After retiring, King lived in Washington, DC. He was active as President of the Naval Historical Foundation from 1946 to 1949 .
Military career
From 1897 to 1901 he studied at the United States Naval Academy and took part in the Spanish-American War as a cadet on the cruiser USS San Francisco . He began his officer career as a lieutenant on the gunboat Eagle and later served on various battleships and cruisers. In addition, he worked from 1906 as an instructor at the Naval Academy. In 1913 he became Lieutenant Commander ( Corvette Captain ). In 1914 he got his first command of the ship with the destroyer USS Terry . In 1916 the Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet , Admiral Henry Thomas Mayo, took him on to his staff, of which he was a member during the First World War . In 1917 he was promoted to commander ( frigate captain ) and in 1918 to captain ( sea captain ).
After the end of the war, King initially took on a position as head of the Naval Postgraduate School before he switched to submarine weapons in 1922 , where he temporarily led a submarine division. In 1923 he took command of the submarine base in New London , Connecticut. In 1926 he joined at the invitation of William A. Moffett for young Naval Aviation , where he in command of the Seeflugzeugtender USS Wright received and even took flying lessons in the following year. In 1928 he became deputy head of the Bureau of Aeronautics and the following year in command of Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia .
The large aircraft carrier USS Lexington was under his command from 1930. After his promotion to Rear Admiral ( Rear Admiral ) he became in 1933 Director of the Bureau of Aeronautics. King commanded the entire fleet of US aircraft carriers in the late 1930s. In 1938 he became a vice admiral .
In February 1941, King was promoted to Admiral and was given supreme command of the newly formed Atlantic Fleet, which he led through a period of escalating tensions before the United States entered the war .
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was ordered back to Washington, DC , where he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet (COMINCH) on December 30th . In March 1942, he also took over the post of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) as the successor to Harold R. Stark . King was instrumental in many operations in the Pacific War and in the European theater of war.
In December 1944, King was promoted to the newly established rank of Fleet Admiral of the United States Navy . After the war ended, King retired and Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz took over his command. In 1950 he was reactivated as a consultant in the Ministry of the Navy.
Many of his subordinates described his leadership style as choleric . King stayed in the Dauntless yacht throughout the war so that he was always on duty.
He died after a long illness in 1956 at Portsmouth Naval Hospital in New Hampshire. He was buried in the United States Naval Academy's Naval Cemetery in Annapolis , Maryland .
Honors
- The destroyer USS King (DDG-41) was named after him in 1960.
- The King Peninsula in West Antarctica is named after King .
- He is ranked 16th in the historical ranking of the highest officers in the United States .
- A primary school in Lorain got his name as well as other schools like u. a. at the Sasebo Naval Base in Japan.
Awards
United States
- Naval Aviator
- Navy Cross
- Navy Distinguished Service Medal
- Spanish Campaign Medal
- Sampson Medal
- Mexican Service Medal
- World War I Victory Medal
- American Defense Service Medal
- American Campaign Medal
- World War II Victory Medal
- National Defense Service Medal
Other nations
- Grand Cross of the National Order of the Légion d'honneur (France) 1945
- Croix de guerre 1939-1945
- PAN Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa - Commander BAR.png Commander of the Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa (Panama) 1929
- Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy 1933
- Knight of the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Italy 1948
- Order of Merit, Grande Official (Brazil) 1943
- Order of Naval Merit (Cuba) 1943
- Estrella Abdon Calderon (Ecuador) 1943
- Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (United Kingdom) 1945
- Order of the Sacred Tripod (China) 1945
- Grand Cross of the Order of George I (Greece) 1946
- Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown (1948)
- Croix de guerre (Belgium)
- Order of Orange-Nassau
Web links
- Newspaper article about Ernest J. King in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Kennedy: Freedom from Fear - The American People in Depression and War, Oxford, 1999, pp. 544f
- ^ Wisdom Lodge List of Famous Freemasons . Wisdom Lodge # 202 Pasadena, CA. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | King, Ernest J. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | King, Ernest Joseph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 23, 1878 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lorain , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 25, 1956 |
| Place of death | Naval Hospital, Portsmouth , New Hampshire |