Frank Jack Fletcher, known throughout the American Navy as Jack, was a tired man after he triumphantly returned from the Battle of Midway. He had already seen a lot of carrier warfare early in the Pacific War. The Japanese sank his carrier, the Yorktown, at Midway as criticisms mounted in the Navy’s senior levels over his overly cautious decision-making at Coral Sea and Midway. He saw his role was to be as careful with the vitally scarce American carriers since these ships were all that prevented the Japanese from advancing across the Pacific and threaten the continental United States.

Nevertheless, Nimitz, who did not know of Fletcher’s fatigue, needed an experienced carrier commander to lead every carrier the Americans had – Saratoga, Wasp, and Enterprise – back to the South Pacific. The carrier Hornet was still at Pearl Harbor undergoing repairs. Halsey was still in the hospital recovering from his dermatitis. The beleaguered Marines on Guadalcanal needed all the help they could get from deadly bombardment by Japanese warships and the constant Japanese attempts to reinforce their men on that island – given the nickname the “Tokyo Express” by the Americans.

Nimitz had tried on May 10 and June 21, 1942 to promote Fletcher to Vice Admiral but King, mindful of the criticisms of Fletcher’s command abilities, resisted. However, the third time proved to be the charm when King approved Fletcher getting his third star on July 15. The rationale finally used was that another Vice Admiral, Leigh Noyes, would be commanding the Wasp task force. Navy protocol dictated that an officer could never command a higher ranked officer.

Eight days before getting his promotion, Fletcher stood on the Saratoga’s bridge as the big carrier moved through Pearl Harbor’s outer channel toward the open sea. Only the most senior officers knew the carrier task force’s ultimate destination. After stopping near one of the remote Hawaiian Islands to conduct gunnery practice, the Saratoga and rest of the task force’s ships turned on a southwesterly course toward the South Pacific. Jack Fletcher was going back to war.

The Saratoga’s force included four heavy cruisers, seven destroyers, three oilers, and four old four-stacked destroyers converted to destroyer transports. The carrier’s Air Group of 90 planes landed on the ship while the task force continued on its southwestern course. By July 24, the Wasp, Noyes commanding, and Enterprise, commanded by Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, rendezvoused with the Saratoga. The plan was to meet Turner’s invasion fleet at the Fiji Islands by July 26.

After the Marines hit the Guadalcanal beaches, Fletcher added more controversy to his career when he elected to withdraw his carriers from protecting the beaches. Japanese planes arrived on August 7 to try to destroy Turner’s invasion fleet. This greatly concerned Fletcher. He viewed his top priority as protecting the American carriers rather than supporting the invasion. So he took his task force away from Guadalcanal and angered Turner and Vandegrift. Fletcher’s reputation for being cautious now worsened with some naval officers questioning his courage.

On August 24, Fletcher’s task force met the Imperial Japanese Navy in the first carrier battle during the struggle for Guadalcanal – the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. The Japanese made another run of the Tokyo Express to bring reinforcements and critically needed supplies to their soldiers on Guadalcanal. More criticisms came at the beleaguered American admiral for his obsession over fueling his ships rather fighting the Japanese.

Many of these accusations had their foundation from the growing rivalry between those senior naval officers who believed the battleship was still the primary offensive weapon – the “Black Shoe” navy – versus those officers – the “Brown Shoe” navy – that the carrier and the weapons they carried, their aircraft, would win the war. Nonetheless, the events at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons sealed Fletcher’s fate as a commander of carrier task forces. King wanted Fletcher’s hide on a silver platter. Nimitz had no choice but to remove Fletcher and send him to Washington for further orders.

He became the commander of the 13th Naval District and the Northwest Sea Frontier in November 1942. Fletcher then had command of the Northern Pacific Area one year later and held that position until the war ended when his forces occupied northern Japan. Promoted to full admiral, he retired from the Navy in May 1947. Fletcher passed away on April 25, 1973.

The controversial admiral served his country during the critically important transition period in the early war years when there was no one else, other than Halsey, that judged him competent to command carrier task forces. It was a difficult time for the United States as the nation moved from a country at peace to a nation fighting a full two-front war. He did the best he could under extremely trying circumstances but always conducted himself with dignity and honor.

Copyright Kenneth I. Friedman © 2007-2008 - All rights reserved