Kimmel, Husband Edward, born, 26-02-1882 in Henderson, Kentucky, to Sibella “Sibbie” Lambert Kimmel (1846–1919) and Major Manning Marius Kimmel (1832–1916), graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy
in 1904. His father, Major Manning Marius Kimmel (1832–1916), served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Husband was married to Dorothy Kinkaid, sister of Thomas C. Kinkaid,
with whom he had two sons Manning and Thomas. Before reaching flag rank, he served on several battleships, commanded two destroyer divisions, a destroyer squadron, and the USS New York. He also held a number of important positions on flag staffs and in the Navy Department, and completed the senior course at the Naval War College. After promotion to Rear Admiral in 1937
, he commanded Cruiser Division Seven on a diplomatic cruise to South America and then became Commander of Cruisers, Battle Force, in 1939. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941. Edwin Thomas
Layton, he died age 81, on 12-04-1984, related that during the attack, “Kimmel stood by the window of his office at the submarine base, his jaw set in stony anguish. As he watched the disaster across the harbor unfold with terrible fury, a spent 50 caliber machine gun bullet crashed through the glass. It brushed the admiral before it clanged to the floor. It cut his white jacket and raised a welt on his chest. ‘It would have been merciful had it killed me,’ Kimmel murmured to his communications officer, Commander Maurice ‘Germany’ Curts.”
Curts died age 79, on 15-02-1976 in Las Gaviotas, Mexico. In The World at War a naval serviceman, who had been situated alongside Admiral Kimmel during the attack, recalled that as Kimmel watched the destruction of the fleet, he tore off his four star shoulder boards and replaced them with those of a Rear Admiral, in apparent recognition of the impending end of his command of the Pacific Fleet.
Kimmel was relieved of his command in mid-December 1941, while he was in the midst of planning and executing retaliatory moves, including an effort to relieve and reinforce Wake Island which might have led to an early clash between American and Japanese carrier forces. He took an early retirement in 1942. He spent much of his time defending himself in front of various hearings, pointing out that all the key information which would have enabled him to anticipate the attack was never made available to him. Rear Admiral Kimmel’s son, Manning,
died when the submarine he commanded, USS Robalo (SS-273)
was mined near Palawan in July 1944.
Death and burial ground of Kimmel, Husband Edward..
Husband Kimmel himself worked for Frederic R. Harris, Inc. after the war. He died at Groton, Connecticut, on 14-05-1968, old age 86. He is buried with his wife Dorthy, born Kinkaid, who died age 84, on 14-01-1975, on the U.S Naval Academy Cemetery of Annapolis, Maryland. His neighbors are 2* Major General and attached to the Department of the Pacific, William Peterkin Upshur, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy Bomber Squadron Leader
, Clarence Wade McKlusky, U.S. 3* Navy Admiral. Commander of destroyers in the Solomon Islands, Aleigh Albert “31 Knot Burke” Burke, and 5* Fleet Admiral
, Ernst King.


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