Edward Clifford Kalbfus (November 24, 1877 – September 6, 1954), nicknamed "Old Dutch", was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy who was commander of the Battle Force of the United States Fleet from 1938 to 1939 and President of the Naval War College from 1934 to 1936 and 1939 to 1942.
Early life and education Kalbfus was born in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania in present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to the former Mary Electra Jones and Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, a nationally acclaimed wildlife conservationist who served as chief game protector of the state of Pennsylvania and executive secretary of the Pennsylvania State Game Commission.
He attended Selwyn Hall in Reading, Pennsylvania before securing an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. As a midshipman at the Naval Academy, he played football and was captain of the baseball team during his first class year, and trained afloat during the summers aboard the Naval Academy Practice Ship in 1895, 1896, and 1897. In the summer of 1898, during the Spanish–American War, he served aboard the battleship , witnessing the sinking of the and the Battle of Santiago Bay. Later that summer he participated in the blockade of Cuba aboard the steam yacht , the screw sloop , and the gunboat . After a final training cruise aboard the battleship , he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1899 and commenced the required two years of precommissioning sea duty as a passed midshipman.
Career United States Navy Voyaging to the Philippine Islands aboard the collier , he participated in the Philippine Insurrection in 1900 and 1901 aboard the gunboat and the cargo ship He received his ensign's commission on July 27, 1901.
In November 1902, he reported aboard the protected cruiser , which was then operating in the Caribbean Sea, but soon found himself back in the Philippines when Cincinnati was assigned to the Asiatic Station the next year. In April 1904 he returned to the United States aboard the protected cruiser , reporting in September to the Naval Academy, where he spent two years as an instructor in the Department of Marine Engineering and Naval Construction and as senior engineering officer of the training ship during the annual midshipman cruises. After the 1906 training cruise he remained aboard Newark when it sailed to participate in the imposition of American military rule in Cuba following the resignation of President Tomás Estrada Palma.
In November 1906, he was assigned as senior engineering officer aboard the new battleship prior to its commissioning at Philadelphia Navy Yard on April 18, 1907. Kansas conducted shakedown training near Provincetown, Massachusetts later that year, before joining the Great White Fleet at Hampton Roads, Virginia in December. Kalbfus served as the battleship's gunnery officer while it participated in the Great White Fleet's historic round-the-world cruise. Kansas returned with the fleet to Hampton Roads in February 1909 and Kalbfus went ashore in May 1910 to begin a three-year tour at the Bureau of Navigation.
He returned to sea in November 1913, reporting first aboard the battleship , then as fleet engineer and aide to the commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and finally as navigator of the battleship . During this period he took charge of the Mexican railway system during the Atlantic Fleet's occupation of Veracruz. He reported to the Navy Department in 1915 as assistant director of gunnery exercises and engineering competitions. In 1917 he was a member of the Board of Appraisal of merchant and private vessels in New York.
World War I
During World War I, Kalbfus, then a captain, received his first command, the transport ship , which ferried troops to Europe as part of the Cruiser and Transport Force under Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves. On May 2, 1918, Pocahontas was attacked by a German submarine that bombarded her with shells. The ship was not directly hit and suffered no casualties. Kalbfus ordered return fire, but the submarine was outside the range of Pocahontas''' guns, so the transport set an evasive zig-zag course, then fled at full speed, setting a record that allowed Pocahontas to outrun the submarine twenty minutes after the attack began.
For saving the ship Kalbfus was awarded the Navy Cross. The citation commended his "distinguished service in the line of his profession as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Pocahontas, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of' transporting and escorting troops and supplies to European ports through waters infested with enemy submarines and mines."Navy Cross citation
He commanded the battleship from 1918 to 1919, then joined the staff of Commander Destroyers, Atlantic from 1919 to 1921, where he ran the Destroyer Engineering School as chief of engineering at the Charleston Navy Yard. "He was a fine officer and ran an excellent school in Charleston, teaching junior officers how to take care of the engineering plants on destroyers," recalled Lieutenant Jerauld Wright. "[The distilling equipment] required continuous maintenance, so he got the manufacturers down to the school to teach us what to do."
Post-war
After the war, he was department head of the Fleet Maintenance Division in the office of the chief of naval operations from 1921 to 1924.
He was captain of the new light cruiser from its commissioning on April 19, 1924. Trenton departed from New York Harbor on May 24 for a shakedown cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, returning to the Washington Navy Yard on September 29. In mid-October, during gunnery drills in the Norfolk area, a powder explosion in the forward turret killed or injured every member of the gun crew. Two of Trentons crew, Ensign Henry Clay Drexler and Boatswain's Mate First Class George Cholister, were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their unsuccessful efforts to prevent additional powder charges from detonating.Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Trenton
From 1926 to 1927, Kalbfus attended the junior course at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, beginning a long association with that institution. He was a standout student in the memory of the course director: "I remember particularly the research done and the presentation of the Pacific problem by (then) Captain Kalbfus, conclusions that were of inestimable value to those who later had to conduct the War in the Pacific." After graduating from the junior course, he remained at the Naval War College as a member of its staff for two years, first as head of the logistics department, then as head of the intelligence department. He left the Naval War College in 1929 to serve as captain of the battleship .
Flag officer Promoted to rear admiral, he was assigned as chief of staff to Commander Battleships, Battle Fleet in 1930, then went ashore as director of war plans in the Navy Department for six months in 1931 before returning to sea as Commander Destroyers, Battle Force, United States Fleet from 1931 to 1934.
Naval War College president (first term) On June 18, 1934, Kalbfus began the first of two non-consecutive terms as president of the Naval War College.Naval War College Past Presidents During his first term, Kalbfus devoted his energy to writing a treatise on naval planning that would eventually be regarded as the ultimate expression of Naval War College philosophy during the interwar period.
Dissatisfied with the existing guide to naval planning, Kalbfus decided to replace it by writing a book-length treatment of the precepts of logical thinking that could be applied to every military situation. In Kalbfus' formulation, naval planning should be guided by "the fundamental principle for the attainment of an end," a three-part formula that evaluated the suitability, feasibility, and acceptability of a plan by asking whether the proposed course of action would accomplish the mission, whether the mission could be accomplished using the available resources, and whether the cost would be worth the price.
Kalbfus believed his new book was essential to correct what he viewed as a widespread indifference within the Navy to the fundamentals of naval warfare. According to Kalbfus, "At the time... it was not generally accepted by the Navy that their business was to fight although, of course, if confronted with this question, they would have agreed that that is what they were hired for. But, within the range of my own observation, both ashore and afloat, I saw that the keeping of office hours and the performance of sundry routine tasks were more in order than an intensive study of the Navy's real business."
Kalbfus completed his first draft in May 1936 and circulated it among staff and students for review. Many staff members were dissatisfied with the new text, including Captain Raymond A. Spruance, who objected to Kalbfus' rejection of existing doctrine and to his cumbersome writing style. Ordered to keep his criticisms to himself, Spruance instead presented them directly to Kalbfus, who overruled the demands of Spruance's outraged superior that Spruance be punished for insubordination.
After assimilating all of the comments, Kalbfus submitted the book for publication under the title Sound Military Decision, before departing the college on December 15, 1936 to assume a fleet command. His successor, Rear Admiral Charles P. Snyder, spent a year reviewing the manuscript, then rewrote several chapters for clarity and published this revised edition in May 1938. Outraged at Snyder's tampering, Kalbfus was persuaded by his chief of staff to avoid a public confrontation, but when it became clear that he would not be appointed to a higher position following his tour in the fleet, Kalbfus requested a return to the Naval War College in order to finish the book himself.
Kalbfus published his version of Sound Military Decision in March 1942. It received wide distribution within the wartime Navy as the only naval planning guide then in print. In 1944, Admiral Ernest J. King enshrined its methodology in naval regulations as COMINCH P-1: "Naval Directives and the Order Form," although it fell from favor after the war. In 1984, the official historians of the Naval War College would write, "Many believe it was and still is the most valuable contribution to military thought made at the Naval War College in the past century...Kalbfus' Sound Military Decision was the most important expression of the college's philosophy, embodying both the focus and understanding expressed in college classrooms throughout the interwar period."
Commander Battleships, Battle Force On January 2, 1937, he was advanced to the temporary rank of vice admiral as Commander Battleships, Battle Force, United States Fleet (COMBATSHIPS). Later that year, during a casual encounter at a cocktail party in San Diego, California, Kalbfus showed a Life magazine article about inventor Donald Roebling's Alligator amphibious rescue vehicle to Major General Louis McCarty Little, commanding general of the Fleet Marine Force. Impressed, Little forwarded the article to Marine Corps Commandant Thomas Holcomb, initiating a chain of events that resulted in the development of the first amtrac, the amphibious landing craft that would be used to land Marines on Guadalcanal and other Pacific islands during World War II.
Commander Battle Force
Kalbfus was promoted to admiral upon relieving Admiral Claude C. Bloch as Commander Battle Force, United States Fleet (COMBATFOR) on January 29, 1938. When assigned to command the Battle Force, he was the second youngest full admiral in the Navy at age 60.