Sundownet's Sunrise

Sundowner's Sunrise

The U.S. Navy's high command cleared its decks for offensive action this week. A shake-up in the top drawer put an airman alone at the top. It also finally put the U.S. fleets under the command of the Navy's toughest "sundowners" and one of the most offensive-minded officers.

To do all this, the President jerked his friend, white-haired, spectacled Admiral Harold R. Stark, out of his job as Chief of Naval Operations (since 1939) and sent him off to London. There, with his four-star rank, he will command U.S. Naval forces operating in European waters (almost none). The change gave Stark's operations functions to boot-tough, 63-year-old Admiral Ernest Joseph King.

Since Dec. 20 bald, lean "Rey" King had been Commander in Chief, United States Fleet. He had been brought to Washington from command of the Atlantic fleet, given more authority than any CINCUS ever had before. Submarine man, naval aviator and onetime Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics, Admiral King is air-minded. Thus, twice in two weeks, the President, in military shakeups, had emphasized air warfare.

When Admiral Stark, who ranked King by earlier appointment as a full Admiral, had charge of long-range planning, most young "war-hawk" naval officers, especially aviators, were sure Stark was not their man. Flying men called him a "battleship Admiral," had bitter words to say about the need for offensive spirit where Navy plans were made. "Betty" Stark also sat as chief of the Army-Navy Joint Board (of strategy), and some Army men were not too happy about that.

As new senior member of the board, Admiral King should cause no such complaints. A martinet who drives careless officers to appeal for transfer to a kinder command, he wants nothing less than perfection of performance from his subordinates, habitually reserves his back pats for officers who solve problems by attack.

"Betty" Stark will headquarter in London where he will work with the British Admiralty. He will relieve studious, crag-faced Vice Admiral Robert Lee Ghormley, who is headed for a sea command, probably an important one.

The Navy's shake-up gave "Rey" King an operations staff to cut him free of detail. This staff will be headed by Rear Admiral Frederick Joseph Home, a naval aviator, a policy maker. And the gold aviator's wings on his blue blouse will not be the only ones around that table.

Admiral King also got a Chief of Staff (for the fleet). Rear Admiral Russell Willson, to take more work off his hands. Navymen knew that "Rey" King did not give a Bosun's curse for old Navy tradition. If any ranker in the Navy could make them pop, things would now pop. And COMINCH King (who changed the abbreviation from CINCUS) finally had the popper all to himself.

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