Wilkinson, Theodore Stark (1888-1946)

National Archives #80-G-386436

Theodore "Ping" Wilkinson was born in Annapolis and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1909 at the head of his class. He participated in the Vera Cruz expedition and won the Medal of Honor for conducting a raid that capture the customs house. He helped develop antisubmarine mines during the First World War, and participated in arms limitation talks in 1933 and 1934. Wilkinson was later captain of the Mississippi and chief of staff of the Hawaii naval district.

Wilkinson had just been promoted to rear admiral and was serving as Director of Naval Intelligence when war broke out in the Pacific. Though considered brilliant by his fellow officers, he had no experience in intelligence work. His career might have been ended by the Pearl Harbor disaster had he not unsuccessfully urged the Chief of Naval Operations, Stark, to call Kimmel when his code breakers realized the significance of the famous fourteen-part message sent to the Japanese embassy just before the attack. Stark chose to send a telegraph instead, which arrived hours after the attack.

In August 1942, Wilkinson was reassigned to the South Pacific and command of Battleship Division 2. He later commanded the amphibious forces that invaded Bougainville in November 1943. This was followed by the Palaus invasion in September 1944 and the Leyte invasion in October. He was promoted to vice admiral shortly before directing the landings on Luzon.

Wilkinson died when his car unaccountably rolled off a ferry near Norfolk, Virginia.

Morison said of him: "A highly intelligent, industrious and conscientious officer, Wilkinson was also an excellent cooperator." He proved to be a superb amphibious commander. One of his subordinates from when he was director of Navy intelligence testified that "In my opinion he had a magnificent mind. He accepted my recommendations almost in toto" (Prange 1981).

Service record

References

Dupuy et al. (1992)

Morison (1950)

Naval Historical Center (accessed 2008-3-13)
Pettibone (2006)

Prange (1981)
Tuohy (2007)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2009 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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