Joel Pringle

Joel Roberts Poinsett Pringle (born February 4, 1873 in Georgetown County , South Carolina , † September 25, 1932 in San Diego , California ) was an American Vice Admiral in the US Navy , who was among other things president of the Naval War College between 1927 and 1930 was.

Life

Origin, training and uses as a naval officer

Pringle was the son of the diplomat Dominick Lynch Pringle , who was, among other things, envoy to the Ottoman Empire , and his wife Caroline Lowndes Pringle, the daughter of a naval officer. He got his first name after the diplomat and politician Joel Roberts Poinsett , who was among other things a member of the US House of Representatives for South Carolina and Secretary of War and a relative by marriage of the Pringle family.

After attending school and training at the Porter Military Academy in Charleston , he entered the US Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1888 . After graduation it was used from 1892 to 1894 on the USS Mohican and then on the cruiser USS Minneapolis , on board of which he participated in reconnaissance trips during the Spanish-American War . At the end of 1898 he was transferred to the training ship USS Enterprise as a second lieutenant before he was employed at the US Naval Academy in 1899. During this time he married Cordelia Pythian, a daughter of Commodore RL Pythian, on January 25, 1899 . The marriage produced a daughter.

After his promotion to lieutenant at sea in March 1899 and first lieutenant at sea in 1900, Pringle found between 1900 and 1917 use as a naval officer in various roles such as commander of the destroyer USS Perkins belonging to the Atlantic flotilla . He was an administrative officer of the battleship USS Nebraska between 1911 and 1913 and was promoted to frigate captain in 1912 . In June 1916 he took command of destroyer divisions 3 and 4 of the Second Atlantic Flotilla, and he finally became the commander in November 1916 with the destroyer tender USS Melville as the flagship .

World War I and President of Naval War College

After the aggravation of the submarine war and the entry of the United States into the First World War , Pringle was transferred in August 1917 in the temporary rank as sea ​​captain and commander of the Second Atlantic Flotilla with 37 destroyers and two tenders to Cobh in Ireland . There he formed together with the British destroyers under Admiral Lewis Bayly a joint destroyer association under the command of Admiral William S. Sims . On October 9, 1917 he became chief of staff of this association and was de facto acting commander, since Sims was mainly in London as a liaison officer to the Royal Navy . After Admiral Bayly had become the unit's commander, Pringle remained chief of staff and was in particular responsible for the logistics of the US and British units. On July 1, 1918, he was given the permanent rank of sea captain.

After the end of the war, Pringle returned to the United States in March 1919 and completed a one-year course at Naval War College in Newport . He then stayed there from March 1920 to 1921 on the staff of Admiral Sims, who was again President of the Naval War College. After serving as the commanding officer of the battleship USS Idaho , he served as Chief of Staff at Naval War College between 1923 and 1925. In July 1925 he became chief of staff at the commanding officer of the battleships of the battle fleet and was promoted to Rear Admiral on December 6, 1926 during this time .

Subsequently, Pringle was as the successor to William V. Pratt from 1927 until his replacement by Harris Laning in 1930 himself President of Naval War College, before he was in 1930 US representative at the London Conference on Naval Disarmament. He returned in May 1932 and was in command of the 3rd Battleship Division of the Battle Fleet and, a few months later, Commander-in-Chief of the Battle Fleet . In his next employment he was intended as Chief of Naval Operations . However, he died unexpectedly on September 25, 1932 in San Diego .

Honors

USS Pringle in December 1942

Pringle Hall in Naval War College was named after Pringle in 1934 . Until the introduction of an electronic war game simulator in 1957 , it housed the war game department. Also includes a 432-seat auditorium, the Quinn Lecture Hall, Naval Staff College, Graphic Arts Studio, Photo Studio Department, and Naval War College Publishing. The destroyer USS Pringle was also named in his honor in 1942 .

Web links

• Vice Admiral Pringle , in: Naval War College Review , January 1970, pp. 1 f.