Interesting to see that perhaps not everyone agreed with Mr Roosevelt´s policy (??!)
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/p...r/j-richdn.htm
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http://www.usna.com/classes/1942/UDT4.htm
“Admiral Richardson Was a True Texas Gentleman”
--- an article written by Rear Admiral Eugene H. Farrell USN (Ret) and published in “The Paris News” of Paris, Texas in the “Guest Column”
A reader of your newspaper, Mr. Desmel Rannals of Honey Grove, sent me a copy of Lee Somerville's column. "Our dead war Heroes not well cared for." In it Mr. Somerville mentioned a native son of Paris and distinguished naval officer, the late James Otto Richardson, and lamented that Paris has apparently forgotten this heroic officer and his family.
Although I am many years junior to Admiral Richardson, I had the privilege of knowing this fellow-Texan and brother officer, as well as his wife, May. Thus, I can confirm much of what Mr. Somerville wrote about him.
Some additional information may be of interest to you and your readers.
Admiral Richardson was born in Texas Sept. 18, 1878, presumably in Paris, though I cannot verify the exact place of birth. He died in his 96th year at Bethesda, MD, Naval Hospital May 2, 1974. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1898 and graduated 5th in the class of 1902. His service to his country and the U.S. Navy had spanned nearly five decades when he retired from active duty January 2, 1947.
In 1939, as the ominous war clouds of Europe darkened our eastern horizon and those of Asia loomed across the Pacific to the west, Franklin D. Roosevelt, then nearing the end of his second term as President, picked two-star Rear Admiral Richardson to be the next Commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet, a four-star billet with the rank of Admiral. This extraordinary decision by Roosevelt must have reflected great faith in Richardson's qualifications to assume the highest Fleet command in the Navy, because in doing so he passed over all eligible three- and four-star Flag Officers. He took command January 6, 1940.
As Mr. Somerville indicated, Richardson's tour as CINCUS (acronym for the Commander-in-Chief U.S. Fleet) was short-lived. He was ordered to base the Fleet at Pearl Harbor, vice California, ostensibly as a deterrent to Japanese strategic ambitions in Southeast Asia. The Fleet lacked ammunition, fuel, material supplies and personnel to fight...to be a deterrent in fact. Richardson knew this and he knew that the Japanese knew it.
Besides being a non-deterrent, he reasoned, the Fleet was geographically vulnerable, 2,000 miles closer to the potential enemy. Throughout 1940, he sent numerous letters and dispatches to Washington pointing out the flaws in Fleet combat readiness and requesting the resources to rectify them. He emphasized them all to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox during the latter's visit to Hawaii....all to no avail.
Then he made two trips to Washington to apprise President Roosevelt of the situation and seek his intercession to bring the fleet up to fighting trim or, failing that, return it to its West Coast, less vulnerable bases. Roosevelt did neither.
Political considerations dominated Roosevelt’s thinking. He clung to the illusion that keeping the Fleet in Hawaii would discourage Japanese aggression. Moreover, it was election year and he was more interested in his political image as a peace guarantor than in preparing the nation for self defense.
When his second eye-to-eye appeal to Roosevelt was rebuffed, Oct. 7, 1940, Richardson tried to shock the president by telling him bluntly that the senior officers of the Navy did not have the trust and confidence in their civilian leadership for the successful prosecution of a war in the Pacific. Roosevelt was shocked all right, but he did not change his policies. Instead, he changed the command of the Fleet to a new incumbent, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, and history recorded the results.
