Valor is an admired quality, especially in terms of military personnel when circumstances and common sense can dictate that they remove themselves from preposterously dangerous situations. It's more than courage: It's a testament to our armed services members that their training, determination, and tenacity overcome the rational impulse to run away. Instead, they act with heroism.

Some achieve commendable valor, overcoming pain, fear, and uncertainty, risking and sometimes losing their lives to achieve a necessary goal. The most elevated achievements of courage and self-sacrifice are recognized with the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in action in the US. armed services.

Background

It's a rare honor for rare individuals. In all U.S. wars and engagements, there have been fewer than 3,550 Medal of Honor recipients in the 160 years since its establishment. Each merits interest, but one of the individuals so honored is of particular interest to us because he was a pipe smoker, and we're always interested in history's pipe smokers. His name is Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, the operational commander in 1942 who won the first three aircraft carrier battles in history.

In an article titled, "Battle of Midway: Black Shoe Admirals in a Brown Shoe Battle," he is referred to as "the pipe smoking admiral." That article further states that Admiral Fletcher "would have corn cob pipes shipped to him a dozen at a time." We've been unable to corroborate that information, but it's clear that Fletcher was indeed a stalwart pipe smoker. His bio in the The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia quotes a fellow service member: "He was somewhat taciturn, rarely smiled, and was disinclined to micromanage. He was fond of iced coffee, Westerns, and smoking a corncob pipe."

Admiral Fletcher "would have corn cob pipes shipped to him a dozen at a time."

In at least one photo of Fletcher, he's smoking a briar, but it seems he was never far from his cobs. We don't know what he smoked in his pipes, unfortunately, but we do know that his career was impressive.

Military Beginnings

Born in Iowa, Fletcher graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906 and began serving aboard destroyers, earning command of the USS Chauncey by 1912. In 1915, during the occupation of Veracruz in the midst of the Mexican revolution, he commanded the transport ship Esperanza, which was tasked with rescuing 350 refugees while under bombardment. Despite the Esperanza taking fire with more than 30 direct hits, Fletcher got all the refugees on board. Then he was placed in charge of the train that would transport refugees, a train whose tracks were most probably booby trapped with land mines, and whose path would take it through dangerous territory held by the Mexican Guard.

Fletcher had built a good rapport with the Mexican forces and was successful in transporting all of the refugees from the interior to Veracruz. His meritorious action was not unnoticed, and in 1915 he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

World War I & II

During WWI, Fletcher was in command of the USS Benham, whose tour of duty was through dangerous waters rife with enemy mines and submarines. For his action during that tour, he received the Navy Cross.

However, Fletcher is most famous for his actions during WWII, in which he commanded the aircraft carriers in the Pacific. In 1942, Fletcher won the first three aircraft carrier battles in history: Coral Sea, Midway, and Eastern Solomons. The U.S. lost two carriers in those engagements; the Japanese lost six.

The Battle of Midway

One of the most important naval air engagements of the war was the Battle of Midway, during which Fletcher commanded Cruiser Division 4, as he had during the Battle of Coral Sea. Japanese forces had a great deal of momentum and had dominated the Pacific since Pearl Harbor. It was imperative to the U.S. war effort that they be stopped.

He was a "black shoe" admiral whose experience was on ships, rather than a "brown shoe" aviator admiral

There was much dissatisfaction in his holding that position. He was a "black shoe" admiral whose experience was on ships, rather than a "brown shoe" aviator admiral. He wasn't alone, though. Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo of the Imperial Japanese Navy commanded the Japanese Carrier Strike Force. He was president of the Naval War College in Tokyo with experience commanding destroyers and other surface ships, and naval protocol and Nagumo's seniority demanded that he be placed in command despite his lack of aviation experience.

Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance had no carrier command experience and didn't expect to find himself in command of Task Force 16; his superior, Vice Admiral William "Bull" Halsey was supposed to be in command, but Halsey fell ill and recommended Spruance, who put himself through a grueling, one-week crash course in carrier operations.

Naguomo lost four carriers in the Battle of Midway, and Japan's dominance of the Pacific was broken.

Other Battles

Fletcher then commanded two of the three task forces engaged in the Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings on Aug. 7 and 8, as well as the following Battle of the Eastern Solomons. For that action he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

After WWII

Despite his distinguished service, Admiral Fletcher was unpopular after the war, largely because of the publication of Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, which appeared in three volumes from 1948-1950. Morison depicts Fletcher in those volumes as overly timid, non-aggressive in combat, and too worried about fuel supplies to do his job correctly.

What particularly attracted the ire of the public was Fletcher's performance during the Wake Island relief attempt in 1941 and the Allied counteroffensive at Guadalcanal. Morison characterized Fletcher as bungling both operations. It may be noted that Morison interviewed many, many people for his multi-volume history, but he failed to talk with Fletcher and seems to have accepted the biased views of some of those he interviewed.

Fletcher is most famous for his actions during WWII, in which he commanded the aircraft carriers in the Pacific

Those accusations have been expertly examined and discarded by John Lundstrom in his article, "Frank Jack Fletcher Got a Bum Rap," in which he details some of the jealousies and political motivations of those who decried Fletcher to Morison. Over the years, Fletcher's reputation has been reestablished in the eyes of the Navy and the public, and he is remembered as one of the most important admirals in U.S. history.

And he did all that while smoking a pipe. The number of talented, brilliant, and creative individuals through modern history who smoked pipes is formidable, more than one might expect from examining statistics. Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher was one of them, smoking his corn cob pipe from the decks of destroyers and aircraft carriers, saving the lives of refugees as well as overseeing challenging battles, and doing his part to better the world through a haze of thick tobacco smoke.

Refrences:

• U.S. Naval Institute
• The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
• "Battle of Midway: Black Shoe Admirals in a Brown Shoe Battle" by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, 2012.