Richmond K . Turner Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner ( May 27 , 1885 – February 12 , 1961 ) , commonly known as Admiral Kelly Turner , served in the United States Navy during World War II , and is best known for commanding the Amphibious Force during the campaign across the Pacific . Early life and career . Richmond Turner was born in Portland , Oregon on May 27 , 1885 , to Enoch and Laura Francis ( née Kelly ) Turner . His father alternated between being a rancher and farmer , and working as a printer in both Portland ( for " The Oregonian " with his older brother Thomas ) and Stockton , California ( where he owned a small print shop ) . Young Richmond would spend most of his childhood in and around Stockton , with a brief stop in Santa Ana , and graduated from Stockton High School in 1904 . He was appointed to the U . S . Naval Academy from California ' s sixth district , his name put forward by Congressman James Carion Needham , in 1904 . He graduated on 5 June 1908 and served in several ships over the next four years . On 3 August 1910 , he married Harriet " Hattie " Sterling in Stockton . In 1913 , Lieutenant ( Junior Grade ) Turner briefly held command of the destroyer . After receiving instruction in ordnance engineering and service on board the gunboat , he was assigned to the battleship s , and during 1916 - 19 . From 1919 to 1922 , Lieutenant Commander Turner was an Ordnance Officer at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington , D . C . He then was Gunnery Officer of the battleship , Fleet Gunnery Officer on the Staff of Commander Scouting Fleet and Commanding Officer of the destroyer . Following promotion to the rank of Commander in 1925 , Turner served with the Bureau of Ordnance at the Navy Department . In 1927 , he received flight training at Pensacola , Florida , was designated as a Naval Aviator , and a year later became Commanding Officer of the seaplane tender and Commander , Aircraft Squadrons , Asiatic Fleet . He had further aviation - related assignments into the 1930s and was Executive Officer of the aircraft carrier in 1933 - 34 . Captain Turner attended the Naval War College and served on that institution ' s staff in 1935 - 38 as head of the Strategy faculty . Turner ' s final field command was the heavy cruiser , on a diplomatic mission to Japan in 1939 . Turner was Director of War Plans in Washington , D . C . , in 1940 - 41 and was promoted to Rear Admiral late in 1941 . Responsibility for Pearl Harbor . As head of the War Plans Division of the Navy Department , Turner was subordinate only to the Chief of Naval Operations , Admiral Harold R . Stark , at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 . Although in theory the Head of Naval Intelligence , Captain Theodore Wilkinson , reported directly to Stark , in practice he was answerable to Turner , and Turner made the important decisions about the handling of naval intelligence . It was therefore Turner who made the decision not to send the Commander of the U . S . Pacific Fleet , Admiral Husband E . Kimmel , details of the intercepted Japanese diplomatic communications which pointed strongly to an imminent air or sea attack on the Pacific Fleet ' s base at Pearl Harbor . Kimmel testified after the war that had he known of these communications , he would have maintained a much higher level of alert and that the Fleet would not have been taken by surprise by the Japanese attack . The leading historian of the attack on Pearl Harbor , Professor Gordon Prange , wrote in " Pearl Harbor : The Verdict of History " that , even allowing for Kimmel ' s desire to exculpate himself , this was correct . Prange wrote : " If Turner thought a Japanese raid on Hawaii . . . to be a 50 - percent chance , it was his clear duty to say so plainly in his directive to Kimmel . . . He won the battle for dominance of War Plans over Intelligence , and had to abide by the consequences . If his estimates had enabled the U . S . to fend off . . . the Japanese threat at Pearl Harbor , Turner would deserve the appreciation of a grateful nation . By the same token , he could not justly avoid his share of the blame for failure . " World War II . In December 1941 , Turner was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief , United States Fleet ( a new position created after Pearl Harbor for Admiral Ernest King ) , serving until June 1942 . He was then sent to the Pacific to take command of the Amphibious Force , South Pacific Force . Over the next three years , he held a variety of senior Amphibious Force commands as a Rear Admiral and Vice Admiral . He helped plan and execute amphibious operations against enemy positions in the south , central and western Pacific . He would have commanded the amphibious component of the invasion of Japan . However , in August 1945 Japan surrendered and Turner ' s invasion plans were never realized . Postwar . After World War II , Admiral Turner served on the Navy Department ' s General Board and was U . S . Naval Representative on the United Nations Military Staff Committee . He retired from active duty in July 1947 . Admiral Turner died in Monterey , California on February 12 , 1961 . He is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno , California alongside his wife and Admirals Chester Nimitz , Raymond A . Spruance , and Charles A . Lockwood , an arrangement made by all of them while living . Honors and depictions . The guided missile frigate ( later cruiser ) was named in honor of Admiral Turner . Turner was portrayed by actor Stuart Randall in the film " The Gallant Hours " .