* The remarkable story of the US Navy's aviation pioneer
*Tells of the highest-ranking Native American US naval officer
*Contains a sixty-minute CD containing revealing interviews
When J. J.`Jocko' Clark graduated from the US Naval Academy at the end of World War I, he was primed to be a pioneer in one of the great transformations of the US Navy in the twentieth century - the change from a surface-only force to one in which aviation played a major role. Under the leadership of admirals William Moffett and John Towers, both of whom believed firmly in the importance of aviation to the modern navy, Clark, along with other like-minded officers, battled low budgets and unsympathetic policy-makers to champion the development of naval aviation during the 1920s and 1930s.
Pearl Harbor proved him and his fellow officers right. As captain of the new aircraft carrier Yorktown, Clark provided aggressive leadership in the capture of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. As a carrier-task-group commander, Clark was instrumental in the brilliant victory at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He withstood numerous kamikaze attacks at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and ensured that Japan's air power was destroyed. After the war he fought to save naval aviation from the attacks of the other services and went on to serve as Commander of the Seventh Fleet in the Korean War.
Worshipped by his crewmen yet disliked by others for his`call 'em as I see 'em' method of leadership, the flamboyant Jocko Clark none the less garnered respect from all quarters. Raised in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma), Clark became the highest-ranking naval officer of Native American descent in American history.
With access to family papers and as co-author of Admiral Clark's 1967 autobiography, Clark Reynolds is ideally ideally situated to bring the last of the colourful, old-school American naval leaders to life. A sixty-minute CD of interviews conducted by the author with Admiral Clark, Arleigh Burke and other notable naval figures is included.
- ISBN10 1591147166
- ISBN13 9781591147169
- Publish Date 1 June 2005
- Publish Status Transferred
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Naval Institute Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English