Commander US Fleet Removed

[Canoerebel]

From the December 1991 National Geographic article "Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy Revisited": "When the commander in chief of the U.S. fleet protested the transfer of his ships to Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt fired him. Bypassing many admirals, the President named a replacement: Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel. Promoted to admiral, Kimmel took command of what now was designated as the U.S. Pacific Fleet, an armada of some 200 ships."

Who was the guy removed from command and to what extent was he vindicated by future events?

I did a quick Wiki search and learned the commander was James O. Richardson.

Wiki gives a pretty detailed account of the events leading to removal...and then gives an itemization of Richardson's later posts. But there's little there in the way of what he actually did - whether he was left to languish in relatively unimportant positions or if, instead, his posts were important ones.

Some of you gents probably know more of the inside story. I'm interested in learning if you're interested in sharing.

[AW1Steve]

I'd love to talk to you about him. I've read everything from or about him that I can find. And I'm working on a mod "Richardson's war" that simulates what might have happened if he remained in command AND his superiors listened to him. He wrote "On the Treadmill to Pearl harbor" and his biographer , Skipper Steely has written a book and several E-books on him. I'd strongly recommend all of them.
https://www.amazon.com/Treadmill-Pearl- ... arl+harbor
https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Harbor-Cou ... AKMF2DES76
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Stay-Pearl-I ... 768&sr=1-6
https://www.amazon.com/Admiral-J-O-Rich ... richardson
https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Crimes-Tri ... richardson



There's others , especially in the e-book format. But here's a good start. You might also look up the Bellinger-martin report that he ordered (and Kimmel ignored).

[John 3rd]

Thanks for all that info! I'll jump on the books. Richardson had some amazing foresight and gets passed over a bunch.

[AW1Steve]

searchpro.asp?phrase=Richardson&author= ... button=+OK+


I've written some on the subjects. Here's the threads (including this one , unfortunately).