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Command Fwd Area 5th Fleet (Spruance), 1944 Oct 4-1945 Apr 16

 File — Box: 6, Folder: 11
Identifier: MSC-308

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collection consists of fourteen boxes of manuscript material documenting the admiral’s distinguished naval career, with emphasis on the World War II period.

Series I, Naval Orders, 1902–1952, consists of his appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, assignments to ships and shore duty, promotions, travel orders, leave of absence requests, temporary duty assignments, additional duty assignments, change of duty assignments, requests for instruction, examinations for promotion, commendations, awards, citations, appointments, and a transfer to the retired list.

Correspondence, 1941–1948, comprises Series II. This is the largest series in the collection and contains letters both sent and received during the World War II period when Hoover was Commander of the Caribbean Sea Frontier, Commander Marianas, and briefly Deputy Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

Subseries I contains letters sent and received regarding the administration of the Caribbean Sea Frontier, 1941–1945, with a focus on the Free French Government in Martinique, the administration of Aruba-Curaçao, Guantanamo, Cuba, and Trinidad, as well as some miscellaneous correspondence. Topics discussed in the correspondence include local defense plans, Army-Navy cooperation, the U-boat menace, routing of convoys, supply problems, shipping of oil and bauxite, relations with the British, Dutch, and French, personnel issues, need for more ships, airplanes, and torpedo nets, and the condition of bases on the islands. Major correspondents include Admirals Ernest J. King, Royal Ingersoll, Richmond K. Turner, Harold Stark, Patrick N.C. Bellinger, Richard S. Edwards, Frank J. Horne, Alexander Sharpe, Charles Hartigan, Jonas Ingram, Lee Noyes, Thomas Wilkinson, Alfred Johnson, Adolphus Andrews, Randall Jacobs, Jesse Oldendorf, Arthur G. Robinson, and James L. Kaufmann. There are letters from General Henri Giraud, French Army, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Rexford Tugwell, Governor of Puerto Rico, and SECNAV Frank Knox as well. The miscellaneous correspondence has letters from Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz regarding assignments.

eries II has letters sent and received when Hoover was commander of the Forward Area Pacific, Commander, Marianas, and Deputy Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, 1943–1945. The organization and location of airfields, command Air Organization, the defense of Saipan, Tinian, the Marshalls and Gilberts, harbor facilities, Fleet Air Wing One, Operations Flintlock and Galvanic, command organization, Japanese POWs, recreation needs, civil affairs, military training, and island natives are issues mentioned in this correspondence. Major correspondents include General Sanderford Jarman, Commander William Quigley, Major General Thomas E. Watson, Commodore John Magruder, Vice Admiral George Murray, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Lieutenant General Robert Richardson, Vice Admiral John Towers, Rear Admiral Charles H. McMorris, Vice Admiral Willis Lee, and Vice Admiral William W. Smith.

The latter part of Series II consists of letters sent and received, 1945–1948, treating promotions, medals, invitations to speak before groups, the proposed merger of the Armed Forces, creation of the Department of Defense, the Atomic Bomb Tests Evaluation Board of which Hoover was a member, and letters of thanks and appreciation. Correspondents include Rear Admiral Alva Bernhard, Vice Admiral William L. Calhoun, Admiral Edward C. Kalbfus, Rear Admiral Richard W. Bates, Rear Admiral Arthur Radford, and Rear Admiral Thomas Sprague. These letters are unclassified.

Some of the correspondence in Series II, Subseries I and II, is classified and open only to individuals with an appropriate security clearance.

Speeches, Series III, has copies of his Navy Day Address in Butte, Montana, 1945, a Navy Day Memorial Speech in Toledo, Ohio, 1947, and a copy of a transcript of a Mutual Broadcasting Company interview regarding the Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945.

Subject Files, Series IV, houses files on the submarines and a submarine officers conference, 1927, information on torpedoes at the Royal Torpedo Factory, Greenock, Scotland, 1918, and the ships SS Cristobal, USS Wright, and USS Farquhar.

Series V, Journals, contains Hoover’s holograph account of his navy assignments, October 1, 1907–January 17, 1914. Tipped in are programs, drawings, postcards, and reports. Included also are a memoir entitled “Some Navy Years, 1903–1919” by Edward F. Johnson, a Night Order Book from the USS Cushing, 1918, a 50th Anniversary book commemorating Naval Aviation, 1960, and an Administrative History of the Caribbean Sea Frontier, 1948.

Miscellany, Series VI, constitutes a large collection of various documents, including reports to the SECNAV on the visit of Submarine Division 8 to Ecuador, March 14–29, 1925, a report on aviation medical activities and facilities, October 1945, and a report on Hoover’s medical exam, 1951; rosters of officers in USS Curtiss (AV 4), July 1 and September 1, 1942; roster of those killed and wounded, June 21, 1945; roster of officers, January 1, 1944; and addresses of USNR officer who served in Hoover’s wartime commands, September 10, 1941 and May 1, 1957.

Other items in Miscellany are identification badges, certificates of membership, a U.S. Naval Academy graduation program, 1944, citations, a diploma from the Naval War College, programs, news clippings, and an aviation log, Curtiss Hydro Aeroplane, 1913.

Photographs comprise Series VII. Most of the photographs date from Hoover’s wartime commands in the Caribbean and the Central Pacific area, 1942–1945. There are photographs of people and scenes in the Gilbert Islands, the Marshalls, Iwo Jima, Saipan, Tinian, Eniwetok, Guam, Palau, the USS Curtiss (AV 4), the visit of General Henri Giraud to the Caribbean Sea Frontier, Admiral Hoover, the Point Honda wreck, 1923, and an album of the Syrian Army, Beirut, 1915.

The collection has two boxes of folio items that house photographs of ADM Hoover, his U.S. Army War College diploma, 1937, two 78 RPM records of the Mutual Broadcasting interview with Hoover on the Iwo Jima and Guam invasion, 1945, and a 36 mm film of Operation Crossroads, Bikini Island Atom Bomb tests, 1946.

Hoover’s student thesis on Policy, 1914, is listed in the appendix to further research sources.

Dates

  • Creation: 1944 Oct 4-1945 Apr 16

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The contents of Boxes 1-6 of Series 2. Correspondence are restricted due to its security classification.

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Repository Details

Part of the Naval War College Archives Repository

Contact:
US Naval War College
686 Cushing Rd
Newport RI 02841 US