Raymond A. Spruance papers

Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance was horn on July 3, 1886, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Alexander P. and Annie Hiss Spruance. One of three sons, he spent his youth in South Orange, New Jersey, where he lived with his maternal grandparents and three aunts. This happy interlude came to an end when his grandfather suffered financial reverses; young Spruance was then forced to return to his parents' home in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from Shortridge High School there and accepted an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy from Indiana, which his mother had worked tirelessly to secure.

Spruance entered the U.S. Naval Academy during the summer of 1903 as a member of the class of 1907. Although he disliked the Academy's curriculum and military routine, he nevertheless graduated twenty-fifth in his class. After early graduation in September 1906, he served in the USS IOWA and then in the USS MINNESOTA, which toured the world as part of the Great White Fleet. As a passed midshipman, he enjoyed the cruise tremendously and decided to make the Navy his career. Interested in engineering, Ensign Spruance received orders for advanced instruction in engineering at General Electric Company in Schnectady, New York, under LCDR Luke McNamee, a pioneer in naval radio systems.

Returning to sea duty in 1910, he first served in USS CONNECTICUT as an engineering officer and then in 1913 received his first command, the USS BAINBRIDGE, a destroyer of the Asiatic Fleet, based in the Philippines. A year later Spruance returned to Indianapolis where he resumed his courtship of Margaret Dean. They were married in December 1914 and had two chiklren: Edward, born in 1915, and Margaret, born in 1920.

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Spruance was electrical officer in the USS PENNSYLVANIA. Although he wanted to go to sea in 191 7, he was assigned instead to the Brooklyn Navy Yard as assistant engineering officer and electrical superintendent. There he was responsible for the development and installation of fire control systems on ships both here and abroad. Sea duty came as the war ended, and he was assigned as Executive Officer of the troop transport AGAMENNON, which carried returning soldiers home.

The post-war period was one of rapid demobilization, tight budgets, and naval disarmament treaties, all ominous for the U.S. Navy's future. Although dismayed by these events, Spruance decided to remain in the service and enjoyed several interesting assignments in the nineteen twenties. A three year stint with the Bureau of Engineering, his last engineering assignment, saw him involved in the installation of shipboard electrical systems. A tour of duty as Commanding Officer of the USS DALE and Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander Naval Forces, Europe was followed by a year of study at the U.S. Naval War College. Spruance realized the value of a Naval War College education to his career and profited from his studies there, as his leadership in World War II proved.

After serving two years as Executive Officer in the battleship USS MISSISSIPPI, he returned again to Newport and the Naval War College where he headed the Correspondence Course Deparbnent. He left the College in 1933 to serve as Chief of Staff to the Commander, Destroyers, Security Force, only to return to the institution in 1935 as Head of the Tactics Section in the Operations Department.

In 1938, Spruance was ordered to command the USS MISSISSIPPI, a sea billet necessary for promotion to rear admiral. Two years later he was promoted to rear admiral, along with sixteen of his classmates, and was named Commandant of the Tenth Naval District, which comprised the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, his post was now a strategic one, and he successfully headed up efforts to improve naval bases and facilities in the area.

Spruance's leadership qualities and skills as a trained warrior, strategist, and tactician became apparent during the long years of World War II in the Pacific Theater. Appointed Commander Cruiser Division Five, Pacific Fleet, headquartered in Pearl Harbor, he took his division to sea three times for trials before war actually began. Devastated by the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, his division again went to sea early in 1942 where it participated in the initial attack on the Marshall Islands, on Wake Island, and provided support for the Doolittle raid on Japan.

The battle of Midway Island in June 1942, was one of Spruance's greatest wartime triumphs and one that turned the tide for U.S. forces. No longer on the defensive, the United States henceforth pursued the Japanese. As commander of American carrier divisions, his victory altered the balance of naval power in the Pacific and halted Japanese eastward expansion. Spruance's success earned him the Distinguished Service Medal.

In June 1942, he reported to CINCPAC headquarters as Chief of Staff to Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. For the next year, the two shared a close personal and working relationship. As Nimitz's chief advisor, Spruance had vastly increased responsibilities coordinating the large and ever expanding staff. Despite the fact that Guadalcanal had been secured, the war was going badly for the allies in 1942. Planning in 1943 centered on a Central Pacific campaign, with the capture of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands the main objective.

In 1943, Spruance was detached to command a new Central Pacific Fleet, one tasked with planning and executing a major amphibious assault on the Gilberts. With Captain Charles J. Moore as his Chief of Staff, and Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner and General Holland Smith, USMC, as major force commanders, and an enormous war machine at his disposal, he went to sea in November 1943 in the USS INDIANAPOLIS. After a bloody battle with heavy casualties, Spruance returned to Pearl Harbor to a "well done" from Nimitz and months of intensive planning for the capture of the Marshalls.

During the midst of the Marshalls campaign, Spruance was promoted to admiral at age fifty-seven, the youngest at that time to be selected. By February 1944, the Marshalls were firmly in American hands and U.S. naval power had scored a magnificent strategic and tactical victory. Spruance's expert planning and careful decision making turned the tide in this encounter, too.

The admiral went on to win additional victories in the Marianas, the Philippine Sea, lwo Jima, and Okinawa during 1944 and 1945. All were of great strategic value in winning the war in the Pacific. On May 26, 1945, Admiral William F. Halsey relieved Spruance at Okinawa, on orders of Nimitz who wanted to save his major commanders from further strain. Spruance would have preferred to finish the fight, but his overworked staff eagerly awaited relief.

He then joined Nimitz at his headquarters in Guam where they planned for the American offensive against Japan, which they hoped would end the war. Spruance advocated bringing the war to China in hopes of starving out Japan, but the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made this unnecessary.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Spruance relieved Nimitz as Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, a position he held for a mere ten weeks before being assigned as President of the Naval War College in Newport, RI. The Spruances' two years at the College were happy ones. The institution was in transition from a wartime to a peacetime footing and the admiral was instrumental in modernizing the curriculum (he added a logistics department), in expanding the student body and staff, and in encouraging the development of strategic thinking in the art of future naval warfare. Socially, there was a plethora of dinners and parties and the highlight of the season, the wedding of Margaret Spruance to CDR Gerald Bogart, held in the president's house.

On July 1, 1948, Spruance retired from the Navy and settled in Pebble Beach, California, where for the rext four years he lived the quiet life of a country gentlemen, gardening and becoming involved in community affairs. In January 1952, this idyllic period ended with his appointment as ambassador to the Philippines. He served three years in the islands where he carried out United States policy in support of the 1953 election of Ramon Magsaysay, the reformist president. When he retired from his post as ambassador in the spring of 1955, he received high praise from both Philippine and American leaders.

Upon his second retirement, he returned to his home in Pebble Beach where he continued to live a quiet life.As she reached the age of 80, his health began to deteriorate and continued to worsen after the death of his son, Edward, in 1969. Admiral Spruance died on December 13, 1969, and was buried at a military cemetery in San Francisco, next to his old comrades in arms, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner.

Admiral Spruance was the recipient of many United States and foreign awards and medals throughout his naval career, including the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal (USA), the Navy Commendation Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the Cuban Pacification Medal, World War I Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, Croix de Guerre with Palm (Belgium), Honorary Companion of the Bath (England), the Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold with Palm (Belgium), and the Gold Cross of the Chevalier of the Order of the Saviour (Greece). He also received honorary degrees from Brown University, Yale University, Rhode Island College, Williams College, Occidental College, Worcester Polytechnic, and Central Philippine College.

1886

Born, July 3, Baltimore, Maryland

1906

Graduated, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, Class of 1907

1906-1907

USS IOWA (BB-4), Passed Midshipman

1907-1909

USS MINNESOTA (BB-22), Great White Fleet Round-the-World Cruise

1908

September 13, Commissioned Ensign

1909

General Electric Company, Schnectady, NY, Electrical Engineering Instruction

1910-1911

USS CONNECTICUT (BB-18), Engineering Officer

1911-1913

USS CINCINNATI (C-7), Senior Engineering Officer

1913-1914

USS BAINBRIDGE (DD-1), CO

1914-1916

Newport News Shipbuilding and Ory Dock Company, Asst. Inspector of Machinery; Married Margaret Vance Dean, December 1914

1916-1917

USS PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38), Assistant Engineering Officer

1917-1918

Navy Yard, New York, NY, Assistant Engineering Officer

1919-1921

USS AGAMENNON (No. 3004 ), Executive Officer; USS AARON WARD (DD-132), CO; USS PERCIVAL (DD-298), CO

1921-1924

Navy Department, Bureau of Engineering

1924-1926

USS DALE (DD-290), CO; Commander Naval Forces Europe, Assistant Chief of Staff; USS OSBORNE (DD-295), CO

1926-1927

U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI, Student, Senior Course

1927-1929

Navy Department, Office of Naval Intelligence

1929-1931

USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41), Executive Officer

1931-1933

U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI, Staff, Head, Correspondence Course

1932

Promoted to Captain

1933-1935

Commander, Destroyers, Scouting Force, Chief of Staff

1935-1938

U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI, Staff, Head, Tactics Section

1938-1940

USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41), Commanding Officer

1940-1941

Tenth Naval District, Commandant; Caribbean Sea Frontier, Commander; Promoted to Rear Admiral

1941-1942

Cruiser Division Five, Pacific Fleet, Commander

1942-1943

U.S. Pacific Fleet, Chief of Staff to Commander-in-Chief; Deputy Commanderin- Chief

1943-1944

Central Pacific Force, Commander

1943

Promoted to Vice Admiral

1944-1945

Fifth Fleet, Commander

1944

Promoted to Admiral

1945-1946

U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, Commander-in-Chief

1946-1948

U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI, President

1948

July 1, Retired from the U.S. Navy

1952-1955

U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines

1969

Died, December 13, Pebble Beach, CA.