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Someone once asked Admiral Ernest J. King if it was he who said, "When they get in trouble they send for the sonsabitches." He replied that he was not -- but that he would have said it if he had thought of it.

Although never accused of having a warm personality, Ernest J. King commanded the respect of everyone familiar with his work. His is one of the great American naval careers, his place in history forever secured by a remarkable contribution to the Allied victory in the Second World War. "Lord how I need him," wrote Navy Secretary Frank Knox on December 23, 1941, the day he summoned King to take control of the Navy at its lowest point, the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

Raised in a stern Calvinist home in Lorain, Ohio, Ernest King grew interested in a naval career after reading an article in a boys' magazine. After graduating from Annapolis fourth in his class (1901), King's early career was "rather ordinary" according to biographer Robert W. Love. But in 1909, at the end of a stint as a drillmaster at the Naval Academy, King distinguished himself by writing an influential essay entitled, "Organization on Board Ship." King performed well in a number of commands between 1914 and 1923, when he began a three-year stint as commander of the submarine base at New London, Connecticut. In 1926 his career took an important turn: he completed the shortened flight course at Pensacola, and from that point on, he would see aviation as the decisive element in naval warfare. This conviction deepened when he served as assistant bureau chief under Rear Admiral William Moffett, widely considered the father of American naval aviation.

King's career received another boost when he ably commanded his first aircraft carrier, the "Lexington," in the early 1930s. But as his prospects for advancement increased, so did his reputation as a difficult character. "He was meaner than hell," commented one junior officer, reflecting the general opinion that King was as much despised as he was respected. This didn't seem to bother him, though. Love observed that he "seemed almost to pride himself on the fact that he had earned his rank solely on his merits as a professional naval officer, rather than as a result of the friendship of others."

In the spring of 1939, the sixty-year-old King coveted the job of Chief of Naval Operations. But his personality and decided lack of political skill or tact led President Roosevelt to pass him over in favor of Admiral Harold Stark. Seemingly banished to duty on the General Board in Washington, King's career was resurrected by the war that soon started in Europe. When Stark grew dissatisfied with the commander of his Atlantic Squadron, he looked to King, who took over in December, 1940. With his slogan "do all that we can with what we have," King ably managed the undeclared war with Germany's U-boats. Although his command was limited to the Atlantic, it brought him to Washington frequently and he stayed abreast of developments in the Pacific. The morning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Stark called him to Washington; soon after he was running the Navy -- first as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet, soon adding the title Chief of Naval Operations, making him the first man to combine both jobs.

In the early months of 1942, King's strategic brilliance earned him the complete confidence of President Roosevelt. When none of the British or American war planners even dared to think of going on the offensive in the Pacific in 1942-43, King successfully lobbied to do just that. "No fighter ever won his fight by covering up -- merely fending off the other fellow's blows," he wrote. "The winner hits and keeps on hitting even though he has to be able to take some stiff blows in order to keep on hitting." It's easy to see why even those who despised Ernest King were glad he was on their side.

Operation Drumbeat was the name Hitler and his admirals gave to the great German submarine offensive against America's east coast shipping. Some believe that the German U-boat offensive gave the United States Navy its greatest defeat in our countries history. The attack on Pearl Harbor had greater shock value but the ships sunk in Hawaii were for the most part obsolete or readily replaceable.

The freighters and tankers sunk in the German offensive were not replaceable until more than a year had past. Admiral Ernest King was a battlewagon admiral who held the British in low esteem according to Gannon. He refused the help and advice of the British, felt convoys were useless, called the British skill on plotting the course of U-boats as "toys and games." He made little effort to install air surveillance of the East Coast and was against using smaller craft to track and fight submarines.

One of his most incomprehensible errors was failing to order seacoast cities towns and even amusement parks to observe blackouts. This meant that American vessels going north or south along our coast were backlit like targets in a shooting gallery.

The Germans themselves were astonished at the ease of their dominance. Yet they continued to operate with little fear of retaliation, for despite the path of destruction being forged just offshore, the U.S. Navy's response was a sluggish one. Admiral Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet, did not seem to recognize the serious nature of what was happening, and ignored the protests of his front-line commanders. Destroyers, vessels vital for anti-submarine duty, were deployed elsewhere or kept in port. When patrol planes became available, they were sent to other areas. The British, who were quite aware of the dire situation at hand, offered both recommendations and ships - and were rebuffed on both counts. Unchallenged, the Germans intensified their assault, and the number of sinkings continued to mount.

The ongoing carnage at sea did not go completely unnoticed by the American high command. Of this "Atlantic Pearl Harbor" Army Chief of Staff George Marshall wrote on June 19, 1942, to Admiral King:

"At last, the urgency of the U-boat threat began to hit home. The massive shipping losses, timely British assistance (which was finally accepted), and some hard-learned lessons provoked an effective reaction from the U.S. Navy. Long-range aircraft patrols were implemented, a coastal convoy system was initiated, and more anti-submarine vessels were deployed. A few enemy U-boats were even sunk. By the summer of 1942, the days of spectacular German success were past, and Admiral Donitz wisely withdrew his submarines to other theaters-of-operation. Though merchant ships were lost sporadically off the coast throughout the remainder of the war, nothing approached the bloodbath of early 1942. The terror of "Torpedo Junction" was over, but its crippling final toll included more than eighty sunken ships and hundreds of lives lost in the waters off North Carolina."

Admiral Ernest King (COMINCH and later promoted to Fleet Admiral in 1944,) finally accepted the validity of the British arguments and those of General George C. Marshall. In May, King established a convoy system for American shipping and also improved American antisubmarine aviation. The Allies also had the advantage of an early RADAR system, and the ability to utilize the “Huff-Duff” system of High Frequency Radio Directional Finder.

However, in a six month period, German U-Boats had sunk nearly 400 ships in USN protected waters. Approximately 5,000 lives were lost in “Operation Drumbeat”, the highest number of them being merchant sailors. As reported by Henry Steele Commanger, “in the spring of 1942, merchant seamen had a higher likelihood of being killed than American troops trapped in the jungles of Bataan. And, they died hideously - blown to pieces, frozen solid in icy Atlantic waters, or boiled at sea by oil fires that burned with raging force for miles around sunken tankers.”

The following is an excerpt from the:

THIRD AND FINAL REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
Covering the period 1 March 1945 to 1 October 1945
by Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King,
Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, and Chief of Naval Operations
(Issued 8 December 1945)

ATLANTIC OPERATIONS

The operations of the United States Navy in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Theaters culminated in the victory of the Allied nations in Europe. The success of the joint antisubmarine campaign and the tremendous achievements in shipbuilding were essential preludes to the landings in Normandy and southern France and the great land offensive, which in three months carried the Allied Expeditionary Forces to the German frontier and brought total victory on German soil six months later. This victory was possible because ships were available and their protection by the Navy effective.

ANTISUBMARINE OPERATIONS

In the antisubmarine campaign our Atlantic Fleet had responsibility for Atlantic areas under United States operational command, and the British Admiralty was responsible for North Atlantic and European operations in which United States naval task forces participated. In the British control areas Commander U.S. Naval Forces in Europe assured proper liaison between the Admiralty and the Tenth Fleet organization in my Headquarters, which was responsible for convoy and routing of United States shipping and the development of plans, weapons, and tactics to be employed in antisubmarine operations.

In the final month of the European war, German submarines made a last determined effort, in great strength, to reach the eastern coast of the United States. That attempt was thwarted by a powerful task force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, which, during an engagement lasting several days, destroyed five U-Boats. The United States Navy's final successful action against German submarines occurred on 6 May, only two days before V-E day, when a U-boat was sunk off Block Island by the destroyer escort ATHERTON with the frigate MOBERLY assisting. The development of new techniques, the intensive training of antisubmarine crews, and the persistence with which the U-Boats were hunted offensively all played vital parts in the surrender campaign. German submarines began to surface and surrender shortly after V-E day, and U.S. Atlantic Fleet escort vessels brought several of them to the United States east coast ports.

A review of antisubmarine and convoy operations since 1939 illustrates clearly these major naval contributions to victory in Europe. The summarized statistics on the Battle of the Atlantic are as follows:

                 German      Allied           
               Submarines  Shipping      New Construction      Net Gains 
                  Sunk       Sunk   | U.S. | British | Total | Or Losses 
                (Number)              (In thousands of tons) 
 
1939 (4 months)      9         810      101     231      332       -478 
1940                22       4,407      439     780    1,219     -3,188 
1941                35       4,398    1,169     815    1,984     -2,414 
1942                85       8,245    5,339   1,843    7,182     -1,063 
1943               237       3,611   12,384   2,201   14,585    +10,974 
1944               241       1,422   11,639   1,710   13,349    +11,927 
1945 (4 months)    153         458    3,551     283    3,834     +3,376 
                   ---      ------   ------   -----   ------    ------- 
Totals             782      23,351   34,622   7,863   42,485    +19,134

From the foregoing statistical summary the chief features of the Battle of the Atlantic are clear:

(a) Until the closing months of 1942 the German submarines were continuing to reduce the available total of Allied tonnage;

(b) Antisubmarine operations resulted in the sinking of an average of 12 German submarines per month after 1 January 1943, or a total of 480 in the two years 1943-44;

(c) American shipyards alone produced an average of a million tons per month of new merchant ships after 1 January 1943, or a total of 24,000,000 tons in two years.

In the 12 months from 1 June 1944, 135 convoys arrived in United Kingdom ports from overseas with a total of 7157 merchant ships totaling more than 50,000,000 gross tonnage. The escort of this shipping and the provision of trained naval armed guard crews aboard the merchant vessels were among the primary tasks performed by the United States Navy in the prosecution of the war in Europe. The Navy's antisubmarine campaign with the British-United States integrated convoy system was in great part responsible for the vital shipping necessary for the Allied land offensive which broke into the Fortress of Europe in 1944 and overwhelmed the Germans ashore in 1945.

TENTH FLEET

On 15 June 1945 the Tenth Fleet was dissolved. This effective organization was established 20 May 1943 under my direct command, with Headquarters in the Navy Department, to exercise unity of control over United States antisubmarine operations in that part of the Atlantic Ocean under United States strategic control. The first Chief of Staff of the Tenth Fleet was Rear Admiral Francis S. Low, who was relieved in January 1945 by Rear Admiral A. R. McCann.

To the Tenth Fleet were assigned the following tasks:

(a) Destruction of enemy submarines.

(b) Protection of Allied shipping in the Eastern, Gulf, and Caribbean Sea Frontiers.

(c) Support of other antisubmarine forces of our own and of the other Allied nations operating in the Atlantic areas.

(d) Exercise of control of convoys and shipping that were United States responsibilities.

(e) Correlation of United States antisubmarine training and materiel development.

To accomplish these tasks the Tenth Fleet was organized into four principal divisions: Operations; Antisubmarine Measures (materiel, training, analysis and statistics, and operational research); Convoy and Routing; and a Scientific Council composed of distinguished civilian scientists.

The Tenth was a fleet without a ship. However, this highly specialized command coordinated and directed our naval forces in the Battle of the Atlantic, making available the latest intelligence to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and to other fleet and sea frontier commanders who directed the actual operations at sea, and supplying antisubmarine training and operating procedures to our forces afloat. The Tenth Fleet correlated the antisubmarine developments of the various technical bureaus of the Navy Department and the fleet training schools concerned with antisubmarine activities. In addition, it worked closely with the General Staff of the United States Army and with the British Admiralty and Canadian Naval Headquarters to avoid duplication and confusion, and to insure that maximum effort would be directed against the German underseas fleet. The effective work of the Tenth Fleet contributed outstandingly to the success of the United States naval operations in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Additional Sources:

http://cindea.tripod.com/Newsletter
www.geocities.com/eighthafhs
www.nps.gov/caha
www.american-partisan.com
www.history.navy.mil
www.sid-ss.net/honors

Interesting stuff, SAM.

Serving aboard a Destroyer Tender, we had occasion to work on/in/under the USS KING and the USS FRANK KNOX. Never knew before today who these ships were actually named after.

On one of my WESTPAC cruises, the FRANK KNOX ran aground on a sandbar. Created all sorts of havoc. Word going around at the time, the pumps were not shut down and the subsequent sand sucked in destroyed the pumps and related systems. The KNOX ended up in drydock, and again, scuttlebutt at the time said the skipper was relieved of duty and pretty much ended his naval career.

On This Day In History
(Better late than never)

Birthdates which occurred on June 28:

1490 Albert Margrave of Brandenburg, cardinal (attacked by Luther)
1491 Henry VIII of England (1509-47), Don't lose your head over him
1577 Peter Paul Rubens Siegen, Flemish Baroque painter (Circumcision)
1712 Jean Jacques Rousseau France, social contractor (Confessions)
1787 Sir Henry G W Smith leader of British-Indian forces
1824 Paul Broca France, brain surgeon/anthro (located speech center)
1831 Joseph Joachim Kittsee Germany, violinist (Hungarian Concerto)
1867 Luigi Pirandello Italy, writer (6 Characters-Nobel 1934)
1873 Alexis Carrel France, surgeon/sociologist/biologist (Nobel 1912)
1894 Lois Wilson Pitts Pa, actress (Alice-Aldrich Family)
1902 Pierre Brunet France, figure skater pair (Olympic-gold-1928, 32)
1902 Richard Rodgers Hammels Station NY, composer (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
1903 Alan Bunce Westfield NJ, actor (Albert-Ethel & Albert)
1906 Maria Goeppert Mayer US atomic physicist (Nobel 1963)
1909 Eric Ambler suspense author (Epitaph for a Spy)
1926 Mel Brooks comedian/actor/director (Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs)
1942 Sjoukje Dijkstra Holland, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1964)
1945 David Knights bassist (Pocol Harum)
1946 Bruce Davison actor (Willard, High Risk)
1946 Gilda Radner Detroit, comedienne (SNL-Baba Wawa)
1946 John "Mike" Lounge Denver Colo, astr (STS 51-I, STS 26, STS 35)
1947 Patrick Kincaid who wrote the TODAY program; send him a card
1949 Don Baylor Texas, baseball player (1979 AL RBI leader)
1954 Ava Barber Knoxville Tn, country singer (Lawrence Welk Show)
1955 Nikolai Simyatov USSR, nordic skier (Olympic-3 golds-1976)
1958 Sergei Shakrai USSR, champion figure skater
1960 John Elway NFL QB (Denver Broncos)
1961 Jay Schroeder NFL quarterback (Wash Redskins, LA Raiders)
1961 Jeff Malone NBA guard (Washington Bullets)
1963 Andy Cousin rocker (All About Eve-All About Scarlet & Other Stories)
1966 John Cusack actor (Stand By Me, Sure Thing, Better Off Dead)
1966 Mary Stuart Masterson Houston Tx, actress (Some Kind of Wonderful)
1969 Danielle Brisebois Bkln NY, actress (Archie's Place, Big Bad Mama 2)
1969 Tichina Arnold NYC, actress (Ryan's Hope, Sharla-All My Children)
1970 Jack Stephen Burton actor (Chris-Out of this World, Days of Our Life)
1971 Aileen Quinn actress (Annie)

Deaths which occurred on June 28:
1776 Thomas Hickey American sergeant convicted of treason, hanged
1836 James Madison 4th US pres, dies in Montpelier, Va
1889 Maria Mitchell 1st US woman astronomer, dies at 71
1909 Israel Durham Phillies president dies
1914 Archduke Ferdinand & wife Sofia of Austria assassinated (starts WW I)
1954 Red deer dies in Milwaukee Zoo at 26; oldest known deer
1962 Mickey Cochrane baseball hall of fame catcher, dies at 59
1963 Frank "Home Run" Baker (hit 2 HRs in 1911 world series) dies at 77
1964 King Calder actor (Lt Grey-Martin Kane Private Eye), dies at 64
1971 Joseph Colombo mobster, shot dead at 48
1974 Frank Sutton actor (Sgt Carter-Gomer Pyle USMC), dies at 55
1975 Rod Serling writer/host (Twilight Zone, Night Gallery), dies at 60
1980 Herbie Faye comedian (Doc, Phil Silvers Show), dies at 81
1985 James Craig actor, dies of lung cancer at 74

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 CAVALLI ANTHONY FRANK NEW YORK NY.
[EXPLODE NO PARA BEEP NO ONE OBS]
1966 DUDLEY CHARLES GLENDON BOZEMAN MT.
1966 WOLFE THOMAS HUBERT MONETT MO.
[EXPLODE NO PARA BEEP NO ONE OBS]
1967 BAILEY JAMES W. KOSCIUSKO MS.
[02/18/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1967 LAWRENCE WILLIAM P. NASHVILLE TN.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 JOHNS PAUL FREDERCK LACONIA IN.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
767 St Paul I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1245 1st Council of Lyons (13th ecumenical council) opens
1519 Charles I of Spain, who by birth already held sway over much of Europe and Spanish America, was elected the successor of his late grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.
1635 French colony of Guadeloupe established in the Caribbean
1770 Quakers open a school for blacks in Philadelphia
1776 Charleston, SC repulses British sea attack
1778 Battle of Monmouth, NJ
1778 Mary Ludwig Hayes "Molly Pitcher" aids American patriots
1820 Tomato is proven nonpoisonous
1838 Britain's Queen Victoria crowned in Westminster Abbey
1859 1st dog show held (Newcastle-on-Tyne, England)
1861 Leipzig Observatory discovers short-period (6.2 yrs) Comet d'Arrest
1862 Day 4 of the 7 Days-Battle of Savage's Station
1863 General Meade replaces General Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
1874 Freedmen's Bank closes
1886 C H F Peters discovers asteroid #259 Aletheia
1887 Phillies most lopsided shut-out beating Indianapolis 24-0
1892 Phillies tie club record of 16 straight victories
1894 Labor Day established as a federal employees holiday
1902 Congress authorizes Louisiana Purchase Expo $1 gold coin
1905 Russian sailors mutiny aboard the battleship "Potemkin"
1909 1st French air show, Concours d'Avation opens
1914 Assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, in Sarajevo by a Serbian Nationalist,Gavrilo Princip. This incident precipitated a war with Serbia, eventually starting WW1
1918 1st flight between Hawaiian Islands
1919 Carl Mazes pitches a complete double-header against Yanks
1919 Harry S Truman married Elizabeth Virginia Wallace in Independence
1919 Treaty of Versailles ending WW I signed
1923 Dodgers lost 7-0 lead, as Philles score 8 in bottom of 9th
1924 Tornado strikes Sandusky Ohio & Lorain Ohio, killing 93
1928 Alfred E Smith (NY-Gov) nominated for president at Dem Convention
1928 Friedrich Schmiedl attempted rocket mail in Austria (unsucessful)
1939 Pan Am opens southern route transatlantic air service (Dixie Clipper)
1939 Yanks hit 13 HRs, sweep A's 23-2 & 10-0
1940 "Quiz Kids?" premiers on radio
1940 Romania cedes Bessarabia to Soviet Union
1942 Dumont TV network begins (WABD NY)
1945 Polish Provisional Govt of National Unity set up by Soviets
1946 Enrico de Nicola becomes 1st pres of Italy
1950 North Korean forces capture Seoul, South Korea [or 01041951?]
1951 "Amos 'n' Andy" premiers on CBS TV
1956 1st atomic reactor built for private research operates Chicago Ill
1956 Riots break out in Poznan Poland, 38 die
1960 26.42 cm (10.40") of rainfall, Dunmor, Kentucky (state 24-hour record)
1961 Phils & SF set then record longest night game (5h11m) 7-7 15 inn tie
1964 Organization for Afo-American Unity forms in NY by Malcolm X
1965 1st US ground combat forces in Vietnam authorized by Pres Johnson
1965 A R Klemola discovers asteroid #2179 Platzeck
1967 George Harrison is fined œ6 for speeding
1968 Daniel Ellsberg indicted for leaking Pentagon Papers
1971 Fillmore East closes
1971 Phillies' Rick Wise hits 2 HRs & no-hits Reds
1971 Supreme Court overturns draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali
1971 T Smirnova discovers asteroid #3093
1973 Lawsuit in Detroit challenges Little League's "no girls" rule
1973 Black Sports Hall of Fame forms: Paul Robeson, Elgin Baylor, Jesse Owens, Jim Brown, Wilma Rudolph, Joe Louis & Althea Gibson elected
1974 Fall of earth & rocks kill 200. (Quebrada Blanca Canyon, Columbia)
1974 Wings release "Band on the Run" & "Zoo Gang" in UK
1975 David Bowie releases "Fame"
1975 Golfer Lee Trevino is struck by lightning at Western Open (Ill)
1976 The first women enter the U.S. Air Force Academy
1977 Supreme Court allows Federal control of Nixon tapes papers
1978 UNICEF chooses rock group Kansas as ambassadors of goodwill
1978 man claiming reverse discrimination when application was rejected Supreme Court orders Cal medical school to admit Allan Bakke a white
1980 NYC transit fare rises from 50 to 60
1982 Prince Chuck & Lady Di name their baby "William"
1983 Bridge section along I-95 in Greenwich, Ct collapsed kills 3
1983 NASA launches Galaxy-A
1985 Discovery ferried back to Kennedy Space Center via Bergstrom AFB, Tx
1986 Kenneth & Nellie Pike challenge Ala Dem runoff win by AG C Graddick
1987 Don Baylor sets career hit-by-pitch mark at 244 (Pitcher Rick Rhoden)
1987 E F Helin discovers asteroid #3680 Sasha
1988 Mike Tyson sues to break contract with manager Bill Cayton
1990 17th annual Daytime Emmy Awards
1991 In Detroit, a white woman was attacked by a group of black women at a downtown fireworks display in an incident captured on amateur video. (Five women later pleaded no contest to charges stemming from the assault.)
1991 Two people were killed when an earthquake of magnitude 6 shook Southern California.
1991 The Yugoslav army was deployed to Slovenia to take control of airports and border posts and to prevent the republic's declared independence.
1992 Southern California was rocked by a pair of earthquakes that killed one person and injured 402.
1992 French President Francois Mitterrand was cheered as he visited war-torn Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1996 The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.
1997 In a wild rematch, Evander Holyfield retained the WBA heavyweight boxing championship after his opponent, Mike Tyson, was disqualified for biting Holyfield's ear during the third round of their fight in Las Vegas.
2000 Seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida Straits, Elian Gonzalez was returned to his native Cuba.
2000 The Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts can bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders.
2000 The Supreme Court struck down Nebraska's so-called "partial-birth" abortion law.
2001 A unanimous federal appeals court reversed the court-ordered breakup of Microsoft, but ruled that the software giant had violated antitrust laws, and appointed another judge to determine a new punishment.
2001 Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Gay Pride Day (or national soap-on-a-rope day)
Malta : Mnarja Day-recreate customs of Middle Ages
Iowa : Independence Sunday (1776) - - - - - ( Sunday )
National Dream Work Month

Religious Observances
Ang, RC, Luth : Feast of St Iren‘us, Bishop of Lyons, martyr

Religious History
1577 Birth of Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter. His most famous canvasses include 'Descent from the Cross' and 'Erection of the Cross.'
1851 Birth of Eliza E. Hewitt, American Presbyterian church worker and devotional author. Four of her hymns still endure: 'Will There Be Any Stars?', 'More About Jesus I Would Know,' 'When We All Get to Heaven' and 'Sunshine in the Soul.'
1914 Birth of Lester Roloff, American evangelist. In his later years he founded the 'City of Refuge,' a work specializing in reforming children who came from broken homes.
1962 The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was formed with the merger of four Lutheran synods: the United Lutheran Church in America, the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church.
1971 The U.S. Supreme Court declared that state underwriting of nonreligious instruction in parochial schools was unconstitutional.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The only rose without thorns is friendship."

Not that I'm out looking to throw cold water on the reputation of an unquestionably great military man, but I do feel a compulsion to mention that Admiral Ernest King was responsible for scapegoating Captain Charles McVay of the USS Indianapolis, after King's orders regarding the nonreporting of arriving ships was interpreted as also applying to nonarriving ships -- thus leading to the sinking of that ship. Attempting to divert the attention from himself, King ordered the military to court-martial McVay for the sinking, even though no skipper had been court-martialed in the entire course of the war for losing a ship, and even though McVay had not been told that Japanese submarines would be in the area (the Navy knew this information but did not tell him). King ordered the court-martial even though an investigating committee had not yet released its findings. McVay was found guilty by a jury that was chosen by, and depended on promotions from, Admiral King.

Asked about the case many years later, the great Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison responded with a quote from Voltaire: "It is thought good, from time to time, to kill one admiral to encourage the others."

King's performance as an admiral in the Pacific Theater was unusually brilliant -- he is largely responsible for the superior performance of American troops in that area. For that he deserves great credit -- he undoubtedly saved a great number of American lives. But we should not flinch from additionally confronting one of the dishonorable acts of his career -- the court-martial and conviction of Captain Charles McVay, skipper of the doomed USS Indianapolis.

Please allow me to amend an earlier statement -- King's policy did not lead to the sinking of the Indianapolis, but the misinterpretation of it (and the fact that King did not anticipate the misunderstanding and issue a directive clarifying the order) unquestionably did help exacerbate the situation in which the Indianapolis found itself: its men floated in the water for four days and nights (and were continually attacked by sharks) before being accidentally discovered.