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Naval Historical Center
#80-G-625913
"Jocko" Clark
graduated from Annapolis in 1918 and completed flight training in
1923. He boasted of his Cherokee ancestry. Tillman
wrote of him: "Loud, profane, and dogmatic, he was said to
resemble a
frontier desperado more than a naval officer."
Clark was executive officer
of Yorktown under Elliot
Buckmaster, with whom he did not get along well. Clarke had been
an
aviator virtually his entire career, while Buckmaster had not
completed
flight training until 1937 and had no experience in squadron
flight
duty. Clark constantly disagreed with Buckmaster; Buckmaster, in
turn,
tended to ignore Clark and seek advice from more junior aviators
in the
Yorktown air group. When
Fletcher took command
of the
Yorktown task force, he
quickly sized up the situation, and he began emulating Buckmaster
in
going beneath Clark for aviation advice. This likely contributed
to a
lifelong enmity between Clark and Fletcher that strongly
influenced the
historiography of Fletcher's service as a carrier task force
commander.
Clark was promoted to captain in January 1942, but delayed his
acceptance of the promotion until he could be detached from Yorktown for other duty in
mid-February. He commanded an escort carrier in the
North
Africa invasion
before
commissioning the second Lexington.
His carrier, Suwannee,
was not scheduled for completion in time for the invasion, but
Clark persuaded the yard
to complete the ship
early: "I cannot give away any military secrets,
but if you can give me my ship two weeks early, I will put her
where
she will do some good" (Larrabee 1987). The ship was not only
completed
on time, but it was loaded with munitions in the yard, in gross
violation of Navy regulations. After returning from Torch, Clark
half
expected to be relieved of command, but instead King commended him.
During the Marcus
raid of August 1943, Clark
objected strongly to a decision by the task
force commander, Charles
Pownall, to clear the area before searching for five
downed
aviators:
You've got the widest yellow streak up your back of any admiral I've evern seen in my life.... I don't care if when I return to Pearl I don't have a ship and I don't have a command. You can make me a seaman second tomorrow, but this is my ship and I'm going to send out a search for them!
(Tuohy 2007) Clark received permission to carry out the search,
which was fruitless, but which endeared him to his aviators.
Following
the Marshall raids
of December 1943, Clark circulated an anonymous
critique of Pownall's performance that likely contributed to the
latter's relief.
Clark had just been promoted to rear admiral in March 1944 when
the
chief of staff of Task Group
58.4 was killed in an air accident. This
was too much for the commander of TG 58.4, Si Ginder, who suffered
a
nervous breakdown. Mitscher
ordered Clark to replace Ginder, ignoring the usual Navy practice
of
giving a new flag officer a shore command. Tradition continued to
be
broken in this regard thereafter.
Clark commanded Task Group 58.1, which raided Ponape on 3 May 1944 and Iwo Jima during the Marianas
campaign in order to interdict Japanese
aircraft
reinforcements. Clark's airmen later participated in the Philippines campaign
and
in the destruction of Yamato
as she sortied against the Okinawa
invasion fleet.
Clark was widely regarded as one the best American carrier task group
commanders. He was an excellent ship handler as well as a skilled
aviator, which doubtless contributed to the high esteem in which
he was
held by his fellow officers. Clark expected the same from his ship
captains, and recommended the relief of the erratic Miles
Browning, Halsey's
former chief of
staff, of a carrier command on account of his poor ship handling
skills. Both Mitscher and Spruance
concurred. However, Clark was considered a "hard man" (Lundstrom
2006)
with little sense of humor and a domineering character who kept
his
distance from subordinates. He suffered from a severe stomach
ulcer
that likely contributed to his sour disposition.
1893-11-12
|
Born in Oklahomayard | |
1918-6-17 |
Ensign
|
Graduates from Annapolis,
standing 47 in a class of 199 |
1925 |
Completes flight training |
|
1928 |
Lieutenant
commander |
Executive officer, Naval Air
Station Anacostia |
1931 |
Commander, CV Lexington
fighter squadron |
|
1933 |
Board of Inspection and
Survey |
|
1940 |
CV Lexington | |
1942-9-24 |
Captain
|
Commander, CVE Suwannee |
1943-4-15 |
Commander, Yorktown |
|
1944-2-10 |
Rear
admiral |
Commander, Carrier
Division 13 |
1945-2 |
Commander, Carrier
Division 5 |
|
18945-6-16
|
Commander, Corpus Christie
Naval
Air Station |
|
1946 |
Vice admiral |
Assistant Chief of Naval
Operations for Air |
1948-11 |
Commander, 7 Fleet |
|
1953-12 |
Admiral |
Retires |
1971-11-30 |
Dies at Sarasota, Florida |
References
Lundstrom
(2006)
Pettibone (2006)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009-2010, 2012 by Kent G. Budge. Index