Thomas C . Kinkaid Thomas Cassin Kinkaid ( 3 April 1888 – 17 November 1972 ) served as an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II . He built a reputation as a " fighting admiral " in the aircraft carrier battles of 1942 and commanded the Allied forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign . He was Commander Allied Naval Forces and the Seventh Fleet under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in the Southwest Pacific Area , where he conducted numerous amphibious operations , and commanded an Allied fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf , the last naval battle between battleships in history . Born into a naval family , Kinkaid was ranked in the lower half of his class on his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in June 1908 . His early commissioned service was spent aboard battleship s . In 1913 , he began instruction in ordnance engineering and served in that field for many years . He saw action during the 1916 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic . During World War I , he was attached to the Royal Navy before serving as Gunnery Officer aboard the battleship . After the war , he was Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander U . S . Naval Detachment in Turkey . Kinkaid received his first command , the destroyer , in 1924 . He was Executive Officer of the battleship when the 1933 Long Beach earthquake struck , and participated in relief efforts . He received his second command in 1937 , the heavy cruiser . From 1938 to 1941 , Kinkaid was a naval attaché in Italy and Yugoslavia . In the months prior to U . S . entry into World War II , he commanded a destroyer squadron . Promoted to rear admiral in 1941 , he assumed command of a U . S . Pacific Fleet cruiser division . His cruisers defended the aircraft carrier during the Battle of the Coral Sea and during the Battle of Midway . After that battle he took command of Task Force 16 , a task force built around the carrier , which he led during the long and difficult Solomon Islands campaign , participating in the Battles of the Eastern Solomons and the Santa Cruz Islands . Kinkaid was placed in charge of the North Pacific Force in January 1943 and commanded the operations that regained control of the Aleutian Islands . He was promoted to vice admiral in June 1943 . In November 1943 , Kinkaid became Commander Allied Naval Forces South West Pacific Area , and Commander of the Seventh Fleet , directing U . S . and Royal Australian Navy forces supporting the New Guinea campaign . During the Battle of the Surigao Strait he commanded the Allied ships in the last naval battle between battleships in history . Following the demise of Japanese naval power in the region , the Allied navies supported the campaigns in the Philippines and Borneo . Kinkaid was promoted to admiral on 3 April 1945 . After the Pacific War ended in August 1945 , the Seventh Fleet assisted in operations on the Korean and China coasts . Admiral Kinkaid was Commander Eastern Sea Frontier and the Sixteenth Fleet from 1946 until his retirement in May 1950 . He was a member of the National Security Training Commission for much of the rest of the decade . He also served with the American Battle Monuments Commission for 15 years . Early life . Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was born in Hanover , New Hampshire , on 3 April 1888 , the second child and only son of Thomas Wright Kinkaid , a naval officer , and his wife Virginia Lee née Cassin . At the time , Thomas Wright Kinkaid was on leave from the U . S . Navy and employed at the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts . When Thomas was only a year old , his father was posted to the , and the family moved to Sitka , Alaska , where a third child , Dorothy , was born in 1890 . Over the next few years the family successively moved to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; Norfolk , Virginia ; Annapolis , Maryland and Georgetown , Washington , D . C . Thomas attended Western High School for three years before entering a U . S . Naval Academy preparatory school . He sought and secured an appointment to Annapolis from President Theodore Roosevelt , and was asked to take the admission examination . The Navy was undergoing a period of expansion , and the intake of midshipmen was double that of two years earlier . Of the 350 who took the examination , 283 were admitted . The class was the largest since the Academy had opened in 1845 . Kinkaid was admitted to Annapolis as a midshipman in July 1904 . His instructors included four future Chiefs of Naval Operations : William S . Benson , William V . Pratt , William D . Leahy and Ernest J . King . In 1905 he took an instructional cruise on . He also spent six weeks on , his only experience of a warship under sail . In subsequent years , his training cruises were on the and which , while much newer , were by this time also obsolete . He participated in sports , particularly in rowing , earning a seat in the Academy ′ s eight - oar racing shell . He graduated on 5 June 1908 , ranked 136th in his class of 201 . Early career . Kinkaid ' s first posting was to San Francisco where he joined the crew of the battleship , part of the Great White Fleet . During the next year , he circumnavigated the globe with the fleet , visiting New Zealand and Australia . The fleet returned to its home port of Norfolk , Virginia in February 1909 . In 1910 , Kinkaid took his examinations for the rank of ensign but failed navigation . While his classmates were promoted in June 1910 , Kinkaid remained a midshipman , pending the result of a makeup examination in December 1910 . In July , he developed pleurisy and was hospitalized in New York , New York before being sent to Annapolis to recuperate . At the time his father was in charge of the Naval Engineering Experiment Station there , which allowed Kinkaid to stay with his parents while studying for his navigation examination . In October , he was posted to the battleship whose skipper , Commander William Sims , an Annapolis classmate of his father ′ s , encouraged Kinkaid ′ s early interest in gunnery . Kinkaid passed his navigation examination on 7 December and was promoted to ensign on 14 February 1911 , backdated to 6 June 1910 . While still at Annapolis , Kinkaid met Helen Sherburne Ross , the daughter of a Philadelphia businessman . The two were married on 24 April 1911 in the Silver Chapel of St . Mark ′ s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in a ceremony attended by a small number of guests . Their marriage produced no children . They enjoyed playing contract bridge and golf , and Helen was the women ′ s golf champion for the District of Columbia in 1921 and 1922 . In 1913 , Kinkaid , now a lieutenant ( junior grade ) , commenced a course in ordnance at the Naval Academy Postgraduate School . This consisted of four months of classroom instruction followed by tours with the leading naval ordnance manufacturers , and concluded with a tour of duty at the Indian Head Naval Proving Ground . Students had to commit to remain in the Navy for at least eight years . After completing the four months in the classroom at Annapolis , Kinkaid commenced a three - month assignment at Midvale Steel , but this was interrupted after two months by the United States occupation of Veracruz . Kinkaid was ordered to report to the gunboat for duty in the Caribbean , during which the ship participated in the 1916 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic . Kinkaid came under fire for the first time when the ship was fired upon from ashore . " Machias " replied with its machine guns . When one jammed , Kinkaid exposed himself to fire to assist in clearing the weapon . He fired it in response to gunfire against the ship . " Machias " returned home in December , and in February Kinkaid resumed his ordnance studies and went to Bausch & Lomb in Rochester , New York , where he studied the manufacture of spotting and fire control system s . In March he reported to the Washington Navy Yard , where he wrote a pamphlet on fire control . He also created a design for a human torpedo , but the Bureau of Ordnance decided that his concept was unsound . He completed his ordnance studies with tours at Bethlehem Steel , the Indian Head Naval Proving Ground and the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn . In July 1916 , Kinkaid reported to , the navy ′ s newest battleship , as a gunfire spotter . He was promoted to lieutenant in January 1917 . In November 1917 , he was ordered to supervise the delivery of a newly developed rangefinder from the Norfolk Navy Yard to the Grand Fleet . On reaching London , Kinkaid reported to Sims , now a vice admiral , who then ordered Kinkaid to deliver secret documents to Admiral William S . Benson at a meeting with Allied naval leaders in Paris . Afterwards , Kinkaid returned to the United Kingdom and tested the rangefinder at on Whale Island , Hampshire . He visited optical works in London , York and Glasgow to study the British Royal Navy ′ s rangefinders , and the Grand Fleet at its anchorages . On returning to the United States in January 1918 , he visited Sperry Gyroscope and Ford Instruments to consult with them on fire control systems . Promoted to lieutenant commander in February 1918 , he was posted to " Pennsylvania " ′ s sister ship , . In May 1919 , " Arizona " was sent to cover the Greek occupation of Smyrna . For his services from September 1918 to July 1919 , Kinkaid was recommended for the Navy Distinguished Service Medal , but it was not awarded . Between the wars . Following the normal pattern of alternating assignments afloat and ashore , Kinkaid was posted to a shore billet as the Chief of the Supply Section of the Bureau of Ordnance in Washington D . C . During this time he published two articles in the United States Naval Institute magazine " Proceedings " . The first , on the " Probability and Accuracy of Gun Fire " , was a technical article arguing for more rather than bigger guns on battleships and cruisers . The Washington Naval Conference would prevent these ideas from being put into practice , by restricting the number and size of warships and their guns . The second , entitled " Naval Corps , Specialization and Efficiency " , argued for increasing the specializations of line officers rather than creating separate corps of specialists , a more controversial topic at a time when naval aviator s were agitating for the creation of a new specialist branch of their own . In 1922 , Kinkaid became Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander U . S . Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters , Rear Admiral Mark L . Bristol . This tour saw the end of the Greek occupation of Smyrna . The ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne by Turkey resulted in a draw - down of U . S . naval forces in the region , reducing Bristol ′ s post to a primarily diplomatic one . In 1924 , Kinkaid , whose father had died in August 1920 , requested a posting back to the United States owing to his mother ′ s ill - health . The ship taking him back , the light cruiser , had to sail by way of Iran in order to collect the body of Vice Consul Robert Imbrie , who had been killed by an angry mob in Tehran . Kinkaid received his first command , the destroyer , on 11 November 1924 . Since its home port was the Philadelphia Navy Yard and ships ′ captains did not have to spend their nights on board , Kinkaid was able to live with Helen at her parents ′ residence in Philadelphia . In July 1925 , he was assigned to the Naval Gun Factory . He was promoted to commander in June 1926 . For the next two years , he served as Fleet Gunnery Officer and Aide to the Commander in Chief , U . S . Fleet , Admiral Henry A . Wiley . In 1929 and 1930 , Kinkaid attended the Naval War College . This was followed by duty on the Navy General Board . He was then seconded to the State Department as a Naval Advisor at the Geneva Disarmament Conference . Kinkaid next became Executive Officer of the , one of the navy ' s newest battleships , in February 1933 . By coincidence the ship was at anchor in Long Beach , California when the 1933 Long Beach earthquake struck . Over the next few days thousands of sailors and marines participated in relief activities . Kinkaid convinced the captain to allow homeless families of crew members to stay on the ship , and erected tarpaulins on the quayside to create family areas . He sent medical and relief supplies ashore from " Colorado " . In 1934 , he returned to Washington for a tour of duty with the Bureau of Navigation , in charge of the Officers ′ Detail Section . During this time , Kinkaid came up for promotion to captain . Classmates including Richmond K . Turner and Willis A . Lee were selected in January 1935 , but Kinkaid was passed over for promotion . However , with the help of strong fitness reports from his superiors , Rear Admirals William D . Leahy and Adolphus Andrews , he was selected in January 1936 and , after passing the required physical and professional examinations , was promoted on 11 January 1937 . Kinkaid was then given his second seagoing command , the heavy cruiser . He assumed command from Captain Henry K . Hewitt on 7 June 1937 . World War II . Attaché . Kinkaid hoped his next assignment would be that of naval attaché to London , but that job went to Captain Alan G . Kirk . Kinkaid was offered and accepted the post in Rome instead . He took up his posting there in November 1938 . In 1939 , he was also accredited with the American embassy in Belgrade . Kinkaid reported that Italy was unprepared for war . Only in May 1940 did he warn that Italy was mobilizing . Soon after , he learned from Count Galeazzo Ciano that Italy would declare war on France and Britain between 10 and 15 June 1940 . He provided accurate reports on the damage inflicted by the British in the Battle of Taranto . He returned to the U . S . in March 1941 . Kinkaid now faced the prospect of selection to rear admiral . He knew that captains normally required a certain amount of seagoing command experience to be considered , but because his tour of duty on " Indianapolis " had been cut short in order to take up the post in Rome , he did not have enough months , and it was unlikely that a billet as captain of a battleship or cruiser would come up in sufficient time before the next round of selections . He discussed the matter with head of the Officers ′ Detail Section at the Bureau of Navigation , Captain Arthur S . Carpender , an Annapolis classmate who had himself recently been selected for flag rank . Carpender came up with a solution : he recommended Kinkaid for command of a destroyer squadron . This was a seagoing command , although Kinkaid was somewhat senior for it . Good fitness reports as commander of Destroyer Squadron 8 , based in Philadelphia , resulted in Kinkaid ′ s promotion to rear admiral in August 1941 , despite having no more than two years ′ worth of total command experience . He became the last of his class to be promoted to flag rank before the United States entered the war . No one ranking lower in the class was promoted to flag rank before retirement . Coral Sea and Midway . Kinkaid was ordered to relieve Rear Admiral Frank J . Fletcher as commander of Cruiser Division 6 , consisting of the heavy cruisers , " Minneapolis " and " San Francisco " . This was part of the U . S . Pacific Fleet , based at Pearl Harbor . He did not reach his new command until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , which brought the U . S . into the war . When he reached Hawaii , Kinkaid stayed with his brother - in - law , the Commander in Chief , U . S . Fleet , Admiral Husband E . Kimmel , who was married to Kinkaid ′ s sister Dorothy . Kinkaid accompanied Fletcher as an observer during the attempt to relieve Wake Island , and did not formally assume command of the division until 29 December 1941 . The traditional job of cruisers was scouting and screening , but with the loss of most of the battleships at Pearl Harbor these roles largely passed to the aircraft carrier s , while the cruisers ′ main mission became defending the carriers against air attack . Kinkaid ' s cruisers formed part of Rear Admiral Aubrey W . Fitch ′ s Task Force 11 , which was built around the carrier . Task Force 11 rendezvoused with Fletcher ′ s Task Force 17 , built around the carrier , on 1 May 1942 . Kinkaid then became commander of the Task Group 17 . 2 , the screening cruisers and destroyers of both carriers . Carrier warfare was in its infancy , and at this stage American carriers neither embarked adequate numbers of fighters , nor skillfully employed what they had . When Task Force 17 was attacked three days later in the Battle of the Coral Sea , the burden of defending the Task Force fell on Kinkaid ′ s gunners . Their task was complicated by the radical maneuvering of the carriers under attack , which made it impossible for the screen to keep station . Despite the gunners ′ best efforts , both carriers were hit , and " Lexington " caught fire and sank . For his part in the battle , Kinkaid was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal . Kinkaid was detached with the cruisers " Astoria " , " Minneapolis " and " New Orleans " , and four destroyers on 11 May 1942 and sailed for Nouméa , while Fletcher took the rest of Task Force 17 to Tongatapu . Kinkaid then headed north to join the Vice Admiral William F . Halsey ′ s Task Force 16 . Kinkaid ' s force became part of its screen which was under the command of Rear Admiral Raymond A . Spruance . Shortly after Task Force 16 returned to Pearl Harbor , Halsey was hospitalized with a severe case of dermatitis and , on his recommendation , was replaced as commander of Task Force 16 by Spruance . Kinkaid then became commander of the screen , also known as Task Group 16 . 2 . He was one of only four American flag officers present during the subsequent Battle of Midway . However , he saw little action , as Task Force 16 did not come under attack . Solomon Islands . After the battle , Spruance became chief of staff to Admiral Chester W . Nimitz , the Commander in Chief , U . S . Pacific Fleet ( CINCPAC ) and Pacific Ocean Areas ( CINCPOA ) . In Halsey ′ s continued absence , Kinkaid became commander of Task Force 16 , built around the carrier , although he was not an aviator , and his experience with carriers had been restricted to commanding their screens at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway . In early July Kinkaid was briefed by Nimitz about plans for a landing in the Solomon Islands , codenamed Operation Watchtower . For this operation , Kinkaid ′ s Task Force 16 would be one of three carrier task forces under Fletcher ′ s overall command . To protect his flagship , the " Enterprise " , Kinkaid had the battleship , heavy cruiser , antiaircraft cruiser , and five destroyers . The addition of the new battleship and its twenty / 38 caliber dual - purpose guns greatly strengthened Task Force 16 ′ s antiaircraft defenses . The American landing on Guadalcanal evoked a furious reaction from the Japanese , who sent their fleet to reinforce the Japanese garrison on Guadalcanal . Fletcher ′ s carriers had the mission of protecting the sea lanes to the Solomons . The two carrier forces clashed in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons . Kinkaid disposed his carrier task force in a circular formation , with " Enterprise " at the center , the cruisers at 10 and 2 o ' clock and the battleship aft at 6 o ' clock . This proved to be a mistake . With a top speed of , the battleship fell behind the carrier when the latter accelerated to while under attack , depriving itself of the protection of the battleship ′ s guns . " Enterprise " came under direct attack by Japanese fighters , taking three bomb hits that killed 74 of its crew . Extraordinary efforts permitted the carrier to continue operating aircraft , but it was forced to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs . In his report after the battle , Kinkaid recommended that the number of fighters carried by each carrier be further increased . For his part in the battle , he was awarded his second Distinguished Service Medal . Task Force 16 returned to the South Pacific in October 1942 , just in time to take part in the decisive action of the campaign , the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands , when the Japanese Army and Navy made an all - out effort to recapture the airfield of Guadalcanal . In addition to " Enterprise " , Kinkaid ' s force included the battleship " South Dakota " , heavy cruiser " Portland " , anti - aircraft cruiser " San Juan " , and eight destroyers . Fortunately , both " Enterprise " and " South Dakota " had been fitted with the new Bofors 40 mm anti - aircraft gun s . In the three early carrier battles , Kinkaid had been a subordinate commander . This time he was in overall command , in charge of Task Force 61 , which included both his own Task Force 16 and Rear Admiral George D . Murray ′ s Task Force 17 , built around the aircraft carrier . The battle unfolded badly . " Hornet " was sunk , and " Enterprise " , " South Dakota " and " San Juan " were severely damaged . Aviators like Murray and John H . Towers blamed Kinkaid , as a non - aviator , for the loss of the " Hornet " . It became a black mark on Kinkaid ′ s record . The Japanese had won another tactical victory , but Kinkaid ′ s carriers had gained the Americans precious time to prepare and reinforce . Aleutian Islands . On 4 January 1943 , Kinkaid became Commander of the North Pacific Force ( COMNORPACFOR ) following the failure of his predecessor , Rear Admiral Robert A . Theobald , to work harmoniously with the U . S . Army . Command relationships in the North Pacific were complicated . Naval forces came under Fletcher ′ s Northwestern Sea Frontier . The troops in Alaska , including Brigadier General William O . Butler ′ s Eleventh Air Force , were commanded by Major General Simon B . Buckner , Jr . , who was answerable to the head of the Western Defense Command , Lieutenant General John L . DeWitt . Kinkaid ′ s command was responsible for coordinating these forces and retaking the Aleutian Islands captured by the Japanese . He found the Army eager to cooperate , but encountered more difficulty with Rear Admiral Francis W . Rockwell , the commander of the Amphibious Force , Pacific Fleet , and later the IX Amphibious Force . Rockwell was an Academy classmate of Kinkaid ' s , who was senior to him in rank , and convinced that he would both plan and command the amphibious phase of the operation rather than Kinkaid . Kinkaid ′ s first major decision was to bypass Kiska in favor of an assault on the less heavily defended Attu Island . He moved his headquarters to Adak to be with those of Buckner and Butler , and at Buckner ′ s suggestion established a joint mess where their two staffs ate meals together . However , the amphibious planning was done in San Diego by Rockwell and his U . S . Marine Corps advisor , Brigadier General Holland M . Smith . The Battle of Attu was only the third American amphibious operation of the war , and was carried through to a costly success under difficult conditions . The slow rate of progress ashore caused Kinkaid to relieve the Army commander , Major General Albert E . Brown and replace him with Major General Eugene M . Landrum . In June 1943 Kinkaid was promoted to vice admiral , thereby removing any lingering doubts about who was in charge , and awarded his third Distinguished Service Medal . He now prepared Operation Cottage , the much larger invasion of Kiska . This was carried out as planned , but the invaders found that the Japanese had already evacuated the islands . In September 1943 , Kinkaid was replaced by Vice Admiral Frank Fletcher . Southwest Pacific . In November 1943 , Kinkaid replaced Carpender as Commander Allied Naval Forces , Southwest Pacific Area , and the Seventh Fleet , known as " MacArthur ′ s Navy " . General Douglas MacArthur had twice requested Carpender ′ s relief , and Kinkaid ′ s record working with the Army in Alaska made him a logical choice . Australian newspapers hailed the appointment of a " fighting admiral " , but neither MacArthur nor the Australian government had been consulted about the appointment , which was made by the Commander in Chief , United States Fleet , Admiral Ernest King . This was a violation of the international agreement that had established the Southwest Pacific Area . The Navy Department then announced that the replacement of Carpender with Kinkaid was merely a proposal , and MacArthur and the Prime Minister of Australia , John Curtin , were asked if Kinkaid was acceptable . They agreed that he was . In his new role , Kinkaid had two masters . As commander of the Seventh Fleet , he was answerable to King ; but as Commander Allied Naval Forces , Kinkaid was answerable to MacArthur . Operations were conducted on the basis of " mutual cooperation " rather than " unity of command " , and relations between the Army and Navy were not good . Kinkaid was not the most senior naval officer in the theater , for the Royal Australian Navy ′ s Admiral Sir Guy Royle and the Royal Netherlands Navy ′ s Admiral Conrad Helfrich were both senior to him . Despite the unpromising relationship with the army , Kinkaid ′ s most troublesome subordinate was a U . S . Navy officer , as had been the case with Rockwell in the Aleutians . This time , the subordinate was Rear Admiral Ralph W . Christie , the commander of Task Force 71 , the Seventh Fleet ′ s submarines . Christie commonly greeted a returning submarine at the pier and awarded decorations on the spot . This practice bypassed military and naval award boards , and annoyed Kinkaid because confirmation of sinkings was accomplished by Ultra , and news of awards given so quickly could constitute a security breach . Kinkaid gave Christie and his other subordinates orders forbidding pierside awards , and the award of army medals to navy personnel . In June 1944 , Christie accompanied a war patrol on Commander Samuel D . Dealey ′ s submarine . Afterward , Christie met with MacArthur and related the events of the war patrol to the general , who decided to award Dealey the Distinguished Service Cross and Christie the Silver Star . When " Harder " was lost with Dealey and all hands on its next patrol , Christie recommended Dealey for the Medal of Honor . Kinkaid turned down the recommendation on the grounds that Dealey had already received the Distinguished Service Cross for the same patrol . Angered , Christie sent a dispatch to Kinkaid in an easily decipherable low - order code that criticized him and urged him to reconsider . Upset by both Christie ′ s attitude and his losses , which included Dealey and Kinkaid ′ s nephew , Lieutenant Commander Manning Kimmel on in July 1944 , Kinkaid requested Christie ′ s relief . On 30 December 1944 , Christie was replaced by Captain James Fife . Other forces under Kinkaid ′ s command included the cruisers of Task Force 74 under Rear Admiral Victor Crutchley , Task Force 75 under Russell S . Berkey , and Task Force 76 , the VII Amphibious Force , under Rear Admiral Daniel E . Barbey . The main role of the Seventh Fleet was supporting MacArthur ′ s drive along the northern coast of New Guinea with a series of 38 amphibious operations , usually directed by Barbey . Kinkaid accompanied MacArthur for the landing in the Admiralty Islands , where the two men came ashore a few hours after the assault troops . With 215 vessels involved , Operations Reckless and Persecution in April 1944 together constituted the largest operation in New Guinea waters . It was followed in quick succession by four more operations , at Wakde , Biak , Noemfor and Sansapor . For MacArthur ′ s long - awaited return to the Philippines in October 1944 , the Seventh Fleet was massively reinforced by Nimitz ′ s Pacific Fleet . Kinkaid commanded the assault personally , with Barbey ′ s VII Amphibious Force as Task Force 78 , joined by Vice Admiral Theodore S . Wilkinson ′ s III Amphibious Force from the Pacific Fleet as Task Force 79 . Kinkaid was also given Rear Admiral Jesse B . Oldendorf ′ s Task Force 77 . 2 , a bombardment force built around six old battleships that had survived the attack on Pearl Harbor , and Rear Admiral Thomas L . Sprague ′ s Task Force 77 . 4 , a force of escort carrier s . However , Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher ′ s Task Force 38 , the covering force of the fast carriers and battleships , remained part of Admiral Halsey ′ s Third Fleet , which was not under MacArthur or Kinkaid ′ s command . Halsey ′ s orders , which gave priority to the destruction of the Japanese fleet , led to the most controversial episode of the Battle of Leyte Gulf . Four Japanese task forces converged on Kinkaid ' s forces in Leyte Gulf : a carrier task force under Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa , from the north ; a force under Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita through the Sibuyan Sea ; and two task forces commanded by Vice Admirals Shōji Nishimura and Kiyohide Shima , which approached via the Surigao Strait . Carrier aircraft from Task Force 38 engaged Kurita in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea , and forced him to withdraw . In a controversial decision , Halsey concluded that Kurita was no longer a threat and headed north after Ozawa ′ s force but , due to a misunderstanding , Kinkaid believed that Halsey was still guarding the San Bernardino Strait . Kinkaid deployed all available Seventh Fleet vessels in the Surigao Strait under Oldendorf facing Nishimura and Shima . In the Battle of the Surigao Strait that night , Kinkaid engaged the Japanese with his PT boats and Oldendorf ' s destroyers , cruisers and battleships . Oldendorf was able to " cross the T " of the enemy fleet . It was the last occasion in history where battleships fought each other . Of Nishimura ' s two battleships and five lesser ships , only the destroyer " Shigure " survived ; Kinkaid ′ s PT force lost only PT - 493 , with 3 killed and 20 wounded . In Oldendorf ' s task force , only the destroyer was hit , mostly by friendly fire . Total Allied casualties were 39 men killed and 114 wounded . However , the victory was marred when Kurita ′ s force doubled back and engaged Sprague ′ s escort carriers in the Battle off Samar the next day . Oldendorf ′ s force headed back but Kurita withdrew after sinking an escort carrier , two destroyers and a destroyer escort . After the war , Halsey defended his actions in his memoirs . Kinkaid ′ s position was that : Following the demise of Japanese naval power in the region , Kinkaid ′ s Seventh Fleet supported the land campaigns in the Philippines and the Borneo . Kinkaid was promoted to admiral on 3 April 1945 . After the Pacific War ended in August 1945 , the Seventh Fleet assisted in landing troops in Korea and northern China to occupy these areas and repatriate Allied prisoners of war . Kinkaid elected not to land troops at Chefoo as originally instructed because the city was in the hands of the Communist Eighth Route Army ; Tsingtao was substituted instead . He was awarded the Legion of Merit by the theater commander in China , Lieutenant General Albert C . Wedemeyer , and the Grand Cordon of the Order of Precious Tripod by the Chinese government . Later life . Kinkaid returned to the United States to replace Vice Admiral Herbert F . Leary as Commander Eastern Sea Frontier and Commander Sixteenth Fleet , making his home in the historic Quarters A , Brooklyn Navy Yard . He served on a board chaired by Fleet Admiral Halsey which also included Admirals Spruance , Towers and Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher , whose task was to nominate 50 of the 215 serving rear admirals for early retirement . Kinkaid was soon facing this fate himself , when the House Armed Services Committee sought to reduce the number of four - star rank officers in 1947 . Kinkaid was one of three admirals , the others being Spruance and Hewitt , who would have to retire or be reduced in rank to rear admiral . After some lobbying , this was averted , and they were permitted to remain in the grade until 1 July 1950 , past Kinkaid ′ s retirement age . Retirement ceremonies , including a parade through New York City , were held on 28 April 1950 and Kinkaid formally retired two days later . In December 1946 , it was announced that Halsey , Spruance and Turner had been awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal . A message soon arrived from MacArthur stating that he could not see why Kinkaid should not merit the same award , which had been recommended by Krueger during the war . The medal was duly presented by General Courtney Hodges in a ceremony on Governors Island on 10 April 1947 . The Australian government chose to honor Kinkaid with an honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath , which was presented by the ambassador at a ceremony at the embassy in Washington on Australia Day , 26 January 1948 . Kinkaid had already been created Grand Officer of the Order of Orange - Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1944 . In March 1948 , he was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold and presented with the Croix de guerre with Palm in a ceremony at the Belgian embassy in Washington , D . C . He served as the naval representative with the National Security Training Commission from 1951 until it was abolished in 1957 . He also served with the American Battle Monuments Commission for fifteen years , beginning in 1953 . In this capacity , he attended the dedication of the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial , Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial , Rhone American Cemetery and Memorial , Manila American Cemetery and Memorial and the East Coast Memorial . He also paid a visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1951 . Until 1961 , he attended the annual reunions held to celebrate General MacArthur ' s birthday , 26 January , joining MacArthur and his old colleagues , including Krueger and Kenney . Kinkaid died at Bethesda Naval Hospital on 17 November 1972 and was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on 21 November . The Navy decided to name a after him . The was launched by his widow Helen at the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula , Mississippi on 1 June 1974 .