Was Captain Leslie Gehres, USN, Ill-Treated?

In researching my book on the USS Franklin, I have spent considerable time studying Captain Leslie Gehres, who assumed the role of that ship’s Captain 80 years ago today. If you are familiar with the story of the Japanese attack on USS Franklin on 19 March 1945, you may already have a strong opinion about Gehres. I won’t discuss his personality in this post. Instead, I want to resolve one topic concerning his lack of a US Naval Academy diploma.

Ring-Knockers, Mustangs, and Reservists

Leslie Gehres was the first US Navy aircraft carrier captain who did not graduate from the US Naval Academy. Nor was he a product of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC). Instead, he was a “Mustang,” the term for an enlisted man who received a commission as an officer.

Some Naval Academy graduates (nicknamed “Ring-knockers) exhibited an undercurrent of arrogance toward those officers, whether mustangs or reservists, who did not graduate from the Academy.

Fortunately, one senior naval leader did not let this attitude get out of hand.

Enter Chester Nimitz

According to his biographer, E. B. Potter, Admiral Chester Nimitz believed that officers should not be treated differently based on how they were commissioned. In his book Nimitz, Potter describes an action Nimitz took before the war started when he headed the Navy’s personnel department, the Bureau of Navigation:

As the Navy began to expand, Admiral Nimitz made the wise decision that the reservists should wear uniforms identical with those of the regulars. That decision was not popular among some of the professionals, but Nimitz stuck to it—despite the example of Britain’s Royal Navy, in which reserve officers wore undulating gold stripes, from which they got the nickname Wavy Navy. Nimitz saw in such differentiation a real handicap. It marked the reservists as different from and somehow inferior to the regulars, whereas regulars and reservists would for the most part have the same authority and the same responsibilities. Difference in uniform implied a lack of unity that did not, or should not, exist.¹

Nimitz was right. Naval Academy graduates made up a small fraction of the entire officer corps at war’s end.

While treating non-academy graduates in an arrogant fashion was discouraged, it wasn’t eliminated. In an oral history, Franklin crew member Billy Denard, an ammunition handler on a 40 mm gun crew, was asked if he liked his officers. He responded:

Well, I didn’t like the officers in the gunnery department that graduated from the Naval Academy. They were regular Navy and they looked down on the Reserve Officers and were kind of arrogant.²

Gehres was commissioned as an Ensign in 1918 and promoted to Lieutenant (j.g) in 1919. He most likely encountered officers who felt mustangs were not as high up on the totem pole as Academy graduates, but there is no record of how much of this “attitude,” if any, he faced.

Many often wonder how Gehres received command of a carrier. And not an escort or a light carrier, but an Essex-class fleet carrier. He was a known commodity to his seniors in the naval aviation community, including Admiral Ernest King. Gehres learned his ship-handling skills in destroyers and later entered naval aviation. Nearly everyone knew everyone else in the early days of naval aviation; calling it a fraternity would not be inaccurate. Gheres rose through the ranks, serving on several carriers, including USS Langley, USS Saratoga, and USS Lexington. He also commanded the Navy’s Nine High Hats stunt team, a precursor of the Navy’s Blue Angels.³ If he faced any discrimination for not graduating from the Academy, he overcame it with hard work. (As I continue my research, I will look for any indication that his “mustang” status shaped his career, personality, or decision-making.)

At a time when some officers who had received high marks in the peacetime navy were being relieved because they were not aggressive enough in war, Gehres was a hard charger. He commanded US Navy Patrol Wing Four in the Aleutians during the first part of the war, holding the temporary rank of Commodore. In Alaska, he had no problem attacking the Japanese, even though his men often disliked him. Others sang his praises even while calling him an “SOB.”⁴

Still others referred to him as “Custer of the Aleutians” because of the risks he took.⁵

As a naval aviator, Gehres was qualified to command an Essex-class carrier. The Navy needed captains as more carriers sailed out of the shipyards. And sometimes two problems can be solved at once. His ship’s navigator, Lt. Commander Stephen Jurika, an admirer of Gehres, stated in his oral history that Gehres had been fired from his position in the Aleutians.⁶

He was also awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for his service there. (In some civilian organizations, giving a person recognition and then moving him out of a position is known as “Plaque ’em and whack ’em!)

As a result of his response to the 19 March attack, Leslie Gehres was awarded the Navy Cross, a recognition second to the Medal of Honor. He would later be promoted to Rear Admiral but never command a ship again.

Academy graduates may have shown some “arrogance” toward Gehres as he rose through the ranks, but he ignored or overcame it. I see no evidence that it impacted him after Franklin’s attack.

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Did you arrive here via a search engine? I am the author of the forthcoming book Heroes By The Hundreds: The Story of the USS Franklin (CV-13). In addition to writing about the bravery of the crews that saved her, I will discuss the lessons we can learn in leadership and decision-making and the changes the US Navy made because of those lessons.

Feel free to follow me on Facebook. There, I am M. Glenn Ross, Author. I also write a monthly newsletter, Glenn’s Action Report, about subjects I find interesting in my research. You can sign up for it below. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. Thanks for reading.
-Glenn

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1. Potter, E.B., Nimitz (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2013) 3
2. Oral History Interview with Billy Dennard. Interview by Richard Misenhimer. 24 October, 2014. Nimitz Research and Education Center https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1606742/ Accessed 18 July 2024
3. Office of Naval Records and History, Ship’s Histories Branch, US Navy, History of USS Franklin CV-13, USS Franklin (CV-13) Original Documents 1943-1946 (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 1994) 304
4. Cloe, John Haile. The Aleutian Warriors: a History of the 11th Air Force & Fleet Air Wing 4 (Anchorage Chapter, Air Force Association; Pictorial Histories Pub. Co: Missoula, MT, 1990) 238
5. Joseph A. Springer, Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II, (Minneapolis, MN, Zenith Press, 2011) 317
6. The Reminininscences of Capt. Stephen Jurika, Jr., USN (Ret.) , Vol. II (Annapolis, US Naval Institute, 1979) 605