"Roosevelt, who had been assistant secretary of the navy during World War I and maintained a proprietary interest in the service, had a hand in the choice of the sixty-three-year-old King as CINCLANT. Tough, brilliant, and short-tempered- Roosevelt said "he shaved with a blow torch"- King was an aviator, a submariner, and a staff officer, and the president's idea of a fighting sailor. Only a short time before, the admiral had been passed over for a top command and was headed for retirement, because, it was said, he drank too much, chased other men's wives, and had too many enemies. "When they get into trouble they send for the sons-of-bitches," was his explanation for this reversal of fortune."
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Military leaders from the United StatesLegion of Honour recipientsPeople from ClevelandAviators from the United StatesNavy Cross recipients
Original Language: English
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Sources
Nathaniel Miller, War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II (1995), p. 190
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_King
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Ernest King
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