97Kinkaid

Kinkaid of the Seventh Fleet: A Biography of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, U.S. Navy

By GERALD E. WHEELER

Naval Historical Center, 1995

531 pages, 58 illustrations, 10 maps. Unpriced ISBN 0-945274-26-2

Captain Tom Kinkaid arrived in Washington on 24 November 1941, fresh from a spell commanding a squadron of destroyers. On 27 November the Senate approved his promotion to the rank of Rear-Admiral, assigned to command Cruiser Division 6 at Pearl Harbor, where he would join his brother-in-law Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet. After packing and a round of farewells, the Kinkaids joined the sleeper at Union Station. It was Saturday 6 December.

Kinkaid's hugely successful career was something of a surprise, despite the astute and careful planning which he devoted to it. The son of a naval officer, he graduated poorly from the Naval Academy in 1908. He sailed in the battleship Nebraska as part of Roosevelt's Great White Fleet which circumnavigated the globe in a famous fifteen-month cruise, the beginning of a decade in battleships where he specialized in gunnery, including taking the course at the Naval Academy Postgraduate School. Kinkaid was assiduous in working for appointments he would enjoy and which would suit his domestic wishes for service on the East Coast or in Europe. When he returned from a spell as Naval Attache in Rome in 1941 it was with some nervousness, since his rather idiosyncratic career did not make him an obvious candidate for flag rank.

He had graduated from the Naval Academy 136th out of a class of 201 and since 1918 had spent over fourteen years in shore billets, including three tours in Washington and spells in Constantinople, Geneva and Rome. He was a bureaucrat and fixer - not the type who made his reputation at sea. But with flag rank his career blossomed.

Kinkaid's wartime career reads like a history of the Pacific Fleet. He was a supernumerary at the failed relief of Wake Island, took his cruisers to the action off Bougainville and the Battle of the Coral Sea, where they rescued the crew of the Lexington, and later fought at Midway. In late 1942 he moved his flag to the Enterprise and fought her through the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. In 1943 he was appointed Commander North Pacific and was responsible for retaking the Japanese occupied Aleutian Islands. Late that year, now a Vice-Admiral, he returned to sea as Commander 7th Fleet, working with Macarthur. His Fleet covered the various landings on New Guinea and then moved north to the Philippines landings and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He next took the surrender of the Japanese Forces in Korea and landed Marines in China to protect strategic locations.

He remained on the active list until 1950 and spent a busy retirement, notably working on the American Battle Memorials Committee until his death in 1972. At his retirement he was the second highest ranking officer in the Navy.

Given so much command in battle it is perhaps unsurprising that Kinkaid was dogged by some controversy. He was blamed by some for the loss of the Hornet at Santa Cruz due to his flawed deployment of the Combat Air Patrol. But the longest running controversy was over Leyte Gulf and Halsey's pursuit of the decoy Japanese carriers, thus exposing the invasion forces covered by Kinkaid. Halsey felt the need to justify his actions throughout the rest of his life; Kinkaid was content to be judged at the bar of history and apart from two interviews always refused to enter the argument.

This biography has been twenty years in the making, due to prolonged periods of ill-health for the author. But the wait has been worthwhile. The book is a solid but very readable work by a master historian. The sources are exploited to the full and the descriptions of complicated battles are lucid and easy to follow. He brings out particularly well the boredom faced in war - particularly by an Admiral who believed in delegation wherever possible and in supporting the decisions and work of his staff - where the non-arrival of the Reader's Digest could assume greater significance than the disposition of the enemy. There are perhaps occasional lapses. For example, few authors would have the misplaced confidence to describe ship production as 'the usufruct of America s shipbuilding industries*.

Kinkaid was not a charismatic leader, but he was a lucky one. He believed in delegation and getting the best from his men even if this left him looking colourless. He created an environment where sound decisions would be made under fire and he was under fire himself more than most senior officers in the Second World War. Yet he was not afraid to stand up to larger than life figures such as Macarthur when he felt that plans were unsound. He was not a great thinker or strategist but he carried out every mission with care and attention to its goals. He led by example. Wheeler brings out Kinkaid's importance, not least as an example of the finest traditions of quiet and conscientious service.

DEREK LAW

King's College London