Ernest King Fleet Admiral Ernest Joseph King ( 23 November 1878 – 25 June 1956 ) was Commander in Chief , United States Fleet ( CINCUS ) and Chief of Naval Operations ( COMINCH - CNO ) during World War II . As COMINCH , he directed the United States Navy ' s operations , planning , and administration and was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . He was the U . S . Navy ' s second most senior officer after Fleet Admiral William D . Leahy , and the second admiral to be promoted to five star rank . As COMINCH , he served under Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and later under James Forrestal . Early life . King was born in Lorain , Ohio , on 23 November 1878 , the son of James Clydesdale King and Elizabath Keam King . He attended the United States Naval Academy from 1897 until 1901 , graduating fourth in his class . During his senior year at the Academy , he attained the rank of Midshipman Lieutenant Commander , the highest midshipman ranking at that time . Surface ships . While still at the Academy , he served on the during the Spanish American War . After graduation , he served as a junior officer on the survey ship , the battleship s , and , and the cruiser . While at the Naval Academy , he met Martha Rankin ( " Mattie " ) Egerton , a Baltimore socialite , whom he married in a ceremony at the Naval Academy Chapel on 10 October 1905 . They had six daughters , Claire , Elizabeth , Florence , Martha , Eleanor and Mildred ; and then a son , Ernest Joseph King , Jr . ( Commander , USN ret . ) . King returned to shore duty at Annapolis in 1912 . He received his first command , the destroyer in 1914 , participating in the United States occupation of Veracruz . He then moved on to a more modern ship , . During World War I he served on the staff of Vice Admiral Henry T . Mayo , the Commander in Chief , Atlantic Fleet . As such , he was a frequent visitor to the Royal Navy and occasionally saw action as an observer on board British ships . It appears that his anglophobia developed during this period , although the reasons are unclear . He was awarded the Navy Cross " for distinguished service in the line of his profession as assistant chief of staff of the Atlantic Fleet . " It was after World War I that King affected his signature manner of wearing his uniform , with a breast - pocket handkerchief under his ribbons ( see image , top right ) . Officers serving alongside the Royal Navy did this in emulation of Admiral David Beatty , RN . King was the last to continue . After the war , King , now a captain , became head of the Naval Postgraduate School . Along with Captains Dudley Wright Knox and William S . Pye , King prepared a report on naval training that recommended changes to naval training and career paths . Most of the report ' s recommendations were accepted and became policy . Submarines . Before World War I he served in the surface fleet . From 1923 to 1925 , he held several posts associated with submarine s . As a junior captain , the best sea command he was able to secure in 1921 was the store ship . The relatively new submarine force offered the prospect of advancement . King attended a short training course at the Naval Submarine Base New London before taking command of a submarine division , flying his commodore ' s pennant from . He never earned his Submarine Warfare insignia , although he did propose and design the now - familiar dolphin insignia . In 1923 , he took over command of the Submarine Base itself . During this period , he directed the salvage of , earning the first of his three Distinguished Service Medals . Aviation . In 1926 , Rear Admiral William A . Moffett , Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics ( BuAer ) , asked King if he would consider a transfer to naval aviation . King accepted the offer and took command of the aircraft tender with additional duties as senior aide on the staff of Commander , Air Squadrons , Atlantic Fleet . That year , the United States Congress passed a law ( 10 USC Sec . 5942 ) requiring commanders of all aircraft carrier s , seaplane tender s , and aviation shore establishments be qualified naval aviator s . King therefore reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola for aviator training in January 1927 . He was the only captain in his class of twenty , which also included Commander Richmond K . Turner . King received his wings as naval aviator No . 3368 on 26 May 1927 and resumed command of " Wright " . For a time , he frequently flew solo , flying down to Annapolis for weekend visits to his family , but his solo flying was cut short by a naval regulation prohibiting solo flights for aviators aged 50 or over . However , the history chair at the Naval Academy from 1971 to 1976 disputes this assertion , stating that after King soloed , he never flew alone again . His biographer described his flying ability as " erratic " and quoted the commander of the squadron with which he flew as asking him if he " knew enough to be scared ? " Between 1926 and 1936 he flew an average of 150 hours annually . King commanded " Wright " until 1929 , except for a brief interlude overseeing the salvage of . He then became Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics under Moffett . The two fell out over certain elements of Bureau policy , and he was replaced by Commander John Henry Towers and transferred to command of Naval Station Norfolk . On 20 June 1930 , King became captain of the carrier – then one of the largest aircraft carriers in the world – which he commanded for the next two years . During his tenure aboard the " Lexington , " Captain King was the commanding officer of notable science fiction author Robert A . Heinlein , then Ensign Heinlein , prior to his medical retirement from the US Navy . During that time , Ensign Heinlein dated one of King ' s daughters . In 1932 he attended the Naval War College . In a war college thesis entitled " The Influence of National Policy on Strategy " , King expounded on the theory that America ' s weakness was Representative democracy : Following the death of Admiral Moffet in the crash of the airship on 4 April 1933 , King became Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics , and was promoted to rear admiral on 26 April 1933 . As bureau chief , King worked closely with the chief of the Bureau of Navigation , Rear Admiral William D . Leahy , to increase the number of naval aviators . At the conclusion of his term as bureau chief in 1936 , King became Commander , Aircraft , Base Force , at Naval Air Station North Island . He was promoted to Vice Admiral on 29 January 1938 on becoming Commander , Aircraft , Battle Force – at the time one of only three vice admiral billets in the US Navy . Among his accomplishments was to corroborate Admiral Harry E . Yarnell ' s 1932 war game findings in 1938 by staging his own successful simulated naval air raid on Pearl Harbor , showing that the base was dangerously vulnerable to aerial attack , although he was taken no more seriously than his contemporary until Dec . 7 , 1941 when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the base by air for real . King hoped to be appointed as either CNO or Cominch , but on 15 June 1939 , he was posted to the General Board , an elephants ' graveyard where senior officers spent the time remaining before retirement . A series of extraordinary events would alter this outcome . World War Two . King ' s career was resurrected by his friend , CNO Admiral Harold " Betty " Stark , who realized King ' s talent for command was being wasted on the General Board . Stark appointed King as Commander - in - Chief , Atlantic Fleet in the fall of 1940 , and he was promoted to admiral in February 1941 . On 30 December 1941 he became Commander - in - Chief , United States Fleet . On 18 March 1942 , he was appointed Chief of Naval Operations ( CNO ) , relieving Stark . He is the only person to hold this combined command . After turning 64 on 23 November 1944 , he wrote a message to President Roosevelt to say he had reached mandatory retirement age . Roosevelt replied with a note reading " So what , old top ? " . On 17 December 1944 he was promoted to the newly created rank of fleet admiral . He left active duty on 15 December 1945 but was recalled as an advisor to the Secretary of the Navy in 1950 . After retiring , King lived in Washington , D . C . . He was active in his early post - retirement ( serving as president of the Naval Historical Foundation from 1946 to 1949 ) , but suffered a debilitating stroke in 1947 , and subsequent ill - health ultimately forced him to stay in naval hospitals at Bethesda , Maryland , and at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine . He died of a heart attack in Kittery on 26 June 1956 and was buried in the United States Naval Academy Cemetery at Annapolis , Maryland . Analysis . King was highly intelligent and extremely capable , but controversial . Some consider him to have been one of the greatest admirals of the 20th century ; others , however , point out that he never commanded ships or fleets at sea in war time , and that his anglophobia led him to make decisions which cost many Allied lives . Others see as indicative of strong leadership his willingness and ability to counter both British and U . S . Army influence on American World War II strategy , and praise his sometimes outspoken recognition of the strategic importance of the Pacific War . His instrumental role in the decisive Guadalcanal Campaign has earned him admirers in the United States and Australia , and some also consider him an organizational genius . He was demanding and authoritarian , and could be abrasive and abusive to subordinates . King was widely respected for his ability , but not liked by many of the officers he commanded . He was . . . perhaps the most disliked Allied leader of World War II . Only British Field Marshal Montgomery may have had more enemies . . . King also loved parties and often drank to excess . Apparently , he reserved his charm for the wives of fellow naval officers . On the job , he " seemed always to be angry or annoyed . " There was a tongue - in - cheek remark about King , made by one of his daughters , repeated by Naval personnel at the time that " " he is the most even - tempered person in the United States Navy . He is always in a rage . " " Roosevelt once described King as a man who " " shaves every morning with a blow torch " . " It is commonly reported when King was called to be Cominch , he remarked , " When they get in trouble they send for the sons - of - bitches . ” However , when he was later asked if he had said this , King replied he had not but would have if he had thought of it . On the other hand , King ' s view of press relations for the US Navy in World War II is well documented . When asked to state a public relations policy for the Navy , King replied " Don ' t tell them anything . When it ' s over , tell them who won . " Response to Operation " Drumbeat " . At the start of US involvement in World War II , blackouts on the U . S . eastern seaboard were not in effect , and commercial ships were not travelling under convoy . King ' s critics attribute the delay in implementing these measures to his Anglophobia , as the convoys and seaboard blackouts were British proposals , and King was supposedly loath to have his much - beloved U . S . Navy adopt any ideas from the Royal Navy . He also refused , until March 1942 , the loan of British convoy escorts when the Americans had only a handful of suitable vessels . He was , however , aggressive in driving his destroyer captains to attack U - boats in defense of convoys and in planning counter - measures against German surface raiders , even before the formal declaration of war in December 1941 . Instead of convoys , King had the U . S . Navy and Coast Guard perform regular anti - submarine patrols , but these patrols followed a regular schedule . U - boat commanders learned the schedule , and coordinated their attacks to these schedules . Leaving the lights on in coastal towns back - lit merchant ships to the U - Boats . As a result , there were disastrous shipping losses — two million tons lost in January and February 1942 alone , and urgent pressure applied from both sides of the Atlantic . However , King resisted the use of convoys because he was convinced the Navy lacked sufficient escort vessels to make them effective . The formation of convoys with inadequate escort would also result in increased port - to - port time , giving the enemy concentrated groups of targets rather than single ships proceeding independently . Furthermore , blackouts were a politically sensitive issue – coastal cities resisted , citing the loss of tourism revenue . It was not until May 1942 that King marshalled resources — small cutters and private vessels that he had previously scorned — to establish a day - and - night interlocking convoy system running from Newport , Rhode Island , to Key West , Florida . By August 1942 , the submarine threat to shipping in U . S . coastal waters had been contained . The U - boats ' " second happy time " ended , with the loss of seven U - boats and a dramatic reduction in shipping losses . The same effect occurred when convoys were extended to the Caribbean . Despite the ultimate defeat of the U - boat , some of King ' s initial decisions in this theatre could be viewed as flawed . In King ' s defense , noted naval historian Professor Robert W . Love has stated that " Operation " Drumbeat " ( or " Paukenschlag " ) off the Atlantic Coast in early 1942 succeeded largely because the U . S . Navy was already committed to other tasks : transatlantic escort - of - convoy operations , defending troop transports , and maintaining powerful , forward - deployed Atlantic Fleet striking forces to prevent a breakout of heavy German surface forces . Navy leaders , especially Admiral King , were unwilling to risk troop shipping to provide escorts for coastal merchant shipping . Unscheduled , emergency deployments of Army units also created disruptions to navy plans , as did other occasional unexpected tasks . Contrary to the traditional historiography , neither Admiral King ’ s unproven yet widely alleged Anglophobia , an equally undocumented navy reluctance to accept British advice , nor a preference for another strategy caused the delay in the inauguration of coastal escort - of - convoy operations . The delay was due to a shortage of escorts , and that resulted from understandably conflicting priorities , a state of affairs that dictated all Allied strategy until 1944 . " Other decisions . Other decisions perceived as questionable were his resistance to the employment of long - range Liberators on Atlantic maritime patrols ( thus allowing the U - boats a safe area in the middle of the Atlantic — the " Atlantic Gap " ) , the denial of adequate numbers of landing craft to the Allied invasion of Europe , and the reluctance to permit the Royal Navy ' s Pacific Fleet any role in the Pacific . In all of these instances , circumstances forced a re - evaluation or he was overruled . It has also been pointed out that King did not , in his post - war report to the Secretary of the Navy , accurately describe the slowness of the American response to the off - shore U - boat threat in early 1942 . It should be noted , however , employment of long - range maritime patrol aircraft in the Atlantic was complicated by inter - service squabbling over command and control ( the aircraft belonged to the Army ; the mission was the Navy ' s ; Stimson and Arnold initially refused to release the aircraft . ) Although King had certainly used the allocation of ships to the European Theatre as leverage to get the necessary resources for his Pacific objectives , he provided ( at General Marshall ' s request ) an additional month ' s production of landing craft to support Operation Overlord . Moreover , the priority for landing craft construction was changed , a factor outside King ' s remit . The level of sea lift for Overlord turned out to be more than adequate . The employment of British and Empire forces in the Pacific was a political matter . The measure was forced on Churchill by the British Chiefs of Staff , not only to re - establish British presence in the region , but to mitigate any perception in the U . S . that the British were doing nothing to help defeat Japan . King was adamant that naval operations against Japan remain 100 % American , and angrily resisted the idea of a British naval presence in the Pacific at the Quadrant Conference in late 1944 , citing ( among other things ) the difficulty of supplying additional naval forces in the theatre ( for much the same reason , Hap Arnold resisted the offer of RAF units in the Pacific ) . In addition , King ( along with Marshall ) had continually resisted operations that would assist the British agenda in reclaiming or maintaining any part of her pre - war colonial holdings in the Pacific or the Eastern Mediterranean . Roosevelt , however , overruled him and , despite King ' s reservations , the British Pacific Fleet accounted itself well against Japan in the last months of the war . General Hastings Ismay , chief of staff to Winston Churchill , described King as : tough as nails and carried himself as stiffly as a poker . He was blunt and stand - offish , almost to the point of rudeness . At the start , he was intolerant and suspicious of all things British , especially the Royal Navy ; but he was almost equally intolerant and suspicious of the American Army . War against Japan was the problem to which he had devoted the study of a lifetime , and he resented the idea of American resources being used for any other purpose than to destroy the Japanese . He mistrusted Churchill ' s powers of advocacy , and was apprehensive that he would wheedle President Roosevelt into neglecting the war in the Pacific . Despite British perceptions , King was a strong believer in the " Germany first " strategy . However , his natural aggression did not permit him to leave resources idle in the Atlantic that could be utilized in the Pacific , especially when " it was doubtful when — if ever — the British would consent to a cross - Channel operation " . King once complained that the Pacific deserved 30 % of Allied resources but was getting only 15 % . When , at the Casablanca Conference , he was accused by Field - Marshal Sir Alan Brooke of favoring the Pacific war , the argument became heated . The combative General Joseph Stilwell wrote : " Brooke got nasty , and King got good and sore . King almost climbed over the table at Brooke . God , he was mad . I wished he had socked him . " Following Japan ' s defeat at the Battle of Midway , King advocated ( with Roosevelt ' s tacit consent ) the invasion of Guadalcanal . When General Marshall resisted this line of action ( as well as who would command the operation ) , King stated the Navy ( and Marines ) would then carry out the operation by themselves , and instructed Admiral Nimitz to proceed with preliminary planning . King eventually won the argument , and the invasion went ahead with the backing of the Joint Chiefs . It was ultimately successful , and was the first time the Japanese lost ground during the war . For his attention to the Pacific Theatre he is highly regarded by some Australian war historians . In spite of ( or perhaps partly because of ) the fact the two men did not get along , the combined influence of King and General Douglas MacArthur increased the allocation of resources to the Pacific War . Other controversies involving King include : Dates of rank . King never held the rank of lieutenant ( junior grade ) although , for administrative reasons , his service record annotates his promotion to both lieutenant ( junior grade ) and lieutenant on the same day . Awards and decorations . Naval Aviator Wings Foreign awards . King was also the recipient of several foreign awards and decorations ( shown in order of acceptance and if more than one award for a country , placed in order of precedence ) : Namesakes . The guided missile destroyer was named in his honor . A major high school in his hometown of Lorain , Ohio , also bore his name ( Admiral King High School ) until it was merged with the city ' s other high school in 2010 . In 2011 Lorain dedicated a Tribute Space at Admiral King ' s birthplace , and new elementary school in Lorain will bear his name . Also named after him is the Department of Defense high school on Sasebo Naval Base , in Japan . The dining hall at the U . S . Naval Academy , King Hall , is named after him . The auditorium at the Naval Postgraduate School , King Hall , is also named after him . In 1956 , schools located on the U . S . Naval Bases and Air Stations were given names of U . S . heroes of the past . The Sasebo Dependents School was named after the famed World War II Hero , Fleet Admiral Ernest J . King . Thus , the official name of Ernest J . King School , Navy 3912 , FPO San Francisco , California , became effective School Year 1956 / 57 . Recognizing King ' s great personal and professional interest in maritime history , the Secretary of the Navy named in his honor an academic chair at the Naval War College to be held with the title of the Ernest J . King Professor of Maritime History . References . < div class = " references - small " >