Four-Star Admiral Charles K. Duncan
Supreme Allied Commander
by Toni McGowan
Admiral Duncan called his 16 months in Coronado, a “personal and professional pleasure.” Admiral Duncan served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. The teenage fascination with boats in the 1920’s led him to become one of only 220 commissioned Four-Star Admirals in the history of the U.S. Navy. His passion for ships continued. Their namesakes provided examples in heroism and diplomacy that he modeled.
Charles Kenney Duncan was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky, on December 7, 1911 to a family that highly valued education. His mother was a professor at the University of Kentucky, a university that initially would not accept women. He attended University High School in Lexington followed by the Kavanaugh Preparatory School. Charles attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1933.
In 1938, after serving on USS Salt Lake City, he served in the Atlantic aboard destroyer USS Schenck (DD-159). He wrote about the significant impact that early good training had on he and his shipmates. Within two years he was assigned to the staff of Commander Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet, when it was first formed and WWII was heating up.
While delivering 50 destroyers to assist the British Royal Navy in Nova Scotia he met his first wife Sheila, whom he married in 1941 in Bermuda, just as Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.
War must have seemed far away to Duncan, who was first executive officer of USS Hutchins in the Pacific—that all changed just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, when hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked Honolulu’s Pearl Harbor.
By August Duncan was assigned to the Destroyer Charles Wilson to protect US Marines unloading by night at Savo Island, near Guadalcanal. Cruisers USS Vincennes, Astoria, Quincy, and fellow Destroyer Helm had conducted a box-shaped patrol between the Tulagi and Savo Island to defend the passage. The Japanese attacked these cruisers as their captains slept, ending in their sinking, igniting Neptune’s Inferno—raging fires on the water. It was all over in one grueling hour.
Duncan’s Destroyer Wilson raced to their aid with bombardment and anti-aircraft engagement, then dramatically and selflessly rescued survivors. Duncan witnessed blood and oil covered survivors struggling in the fiery water falling victim to the sharks. This horror deeply affected him. US losses amounted to 1,077 killed and 709 wounded. The catastrophe at Savo Island was the worst defeat ever suffered by the Navy.
While Neptune’s Fires raged at sea, stranded marines awaited help that was not coming.
A young serviceman wrote, “We have been bombed every day by airplanes, and a submarine shells us every now and then. Our foxholes are four-foot deep. We go out on night patrols and it’s plenty rugged. We lay in the foxholes for 13 to 14 hours at a clip and keep firing at the Japs in the jungle. As yet, there is no air support. The mosquitoes are very bad at night. The ants and flies bother us continually. The planes strafed the beach today. A big naval battle ensued the second day we were here, which resulted in our ship…being sunk. All of our belongings were lost.”
For his heroic actions, Duncan was awarded the Navy Commendation medal with Combat “V” and a Gold Star with Combat “V” in lieu of a second award. Duncan also saw the carrier USS Wasp sunk by Japanese forces.
Because of his leadership, Duncan was assigned to progressively more important positions. He was a member of “Holloway Board” that led to the Navy Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (NROTC) providing a path for college graduates to Officer Candidate School.
By 1945, the Soviet Union had invaded Korea. Japanese troops surrendered to the Russians in North Korea and to Americans in South Korea. WWII ended causing a shortage of equipment, ships, and experienced personnel. This concerned Duncan, now Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet. He warned Congress to continue mine fields on both coasts. His argument was ignored and he stated later that the US “never pays much attention in peacetime to the passive or less glamorous weapon systems.”
Charles Duncan was promoted to Rear Admiral in the summer of 1958, five years after the end of the Korean Conflict. He was assigned Commander Amphibious Group One (1958-59). That same year Rear Admiral Speck turned over the entire Pacific Fleet Amphibious Training Command to Duncan at Coronado Naval Amphibious Base (NAB).
Duncan made important strides in international relations while residing in Coronado. He entertained 28 allied officers training at NAB as guests of the Coronado Rotary Club. Rotary president was Dr. James Vernetti. Duncan noticed that Vice Admiral Liu Kwang-Kai, Commander-in-Chief of the Nationalist Chinese Navy, and other dignitaries had a distorted view of Americans because of motion pictures. Duncan’s goal was to show them the real way Americans lived.
The following year, on July 4, 1960, Admiral and Sheila Duncan rode in the Coronado Fourth of July Parade and were honored at a luncheon by Mayor and Mrs. Robin Goodenough.
The Vietnam conflict took Duncan away from Coronado for assignment near strife torn Laos to command of Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines. He assumed command of Rear Admiral Spring, who was killed in an air crash. His social abilities were again highlighted when he was elected president of a Philippines charitable association and vice president of the Philippines Tubercular Association. He was so loved by the locals that he became an “adopted son” of both Bataan and Zambales.
Duncan had a part in addressing under-representation of African Americans in officer positions when he served as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations and Chief of Naval Personnel. President John F. Kennedy commented that his 1961 inaugural parade had few black officers. Duncan’s special assistant, Lt. Commander Norm Johnson, an African American, was assigned to ensure policies for African American advancement in the military were implemented.
President Johnson nominated Duncan as Vice Admiral, relieving Vice Admiral McCain, namesake of the road exiting Naval Air Station North Island at Fourth Street.
Vice Admiral Duncan then held a sequence of Atlantic Fleet commands: the Atlantic Fleet Cruiser-Destroyer Force (1964-65); the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force (1967-68); the US Second Fleet; and NATO’s Striking Fleet Atlantic (1967-68). For his heroism as Commander Amphibious Force, he was awarded the Legion of Merit.
In 1967, he met his friend Vice Admiral William I. Martin at sea during the first time ever in US Navy history that flagships of “both the Second Fleet and Sixth Fleets refueled simultaneously while steaming in the Mediterranean Sea (USS Springfield—flagship of Duncan, and USS Little Rock—flagship of Martin.)” It was the first time in many years the two three-star Fleet Commanders were together to discuss operations.
On September 30, 1970, Admiral Charles K. Duncan was appointed NATO’s seventh Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, to succeed Admiral Ephraim P. Holmes. He also became Commander-in-Chief Atlantic (the United States Unified Command). In that position he conducted the largest ever NATO naval exercises and received the Award of the Grand Cross of the Order of Orange Nassau with Swords from the Queen of the Netherlands and the Grand Cross of the Order of AVIS (the oldest military order) in Portugal.
By 1971, this one time Ensign had become Commander and Chief of the Atlantic Fleet. He retired the following year, on November 1, 1972, in the grade of Four-Star Admiral.
His service to country and community did not stop there. His postwar assignments included battleship executive officer; commanding officer of an amphibious ship; command of a destroyer division; and operations officer of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
During this period, in the midst of Vietnam objectors, he held fast his commitment to service to one’s nation in the face of controversy by tackling hard issues such as drug use by US forces and Harvard students using the ROTC program to avoid the draft.
In the spring of 1974, he was installed in Athens as honorary President of the Greek National Organization Encouraging NATO’s Aims.
Upon retirement, he moved to the country near Leesburg, Virginia, living there until January 1977. He continued his deeply held value of service as a member of Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Board on Education and Training – and served on the Board of Advisors to the President, U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
He then decided to return to his favorite post and became a full-time resident of Coronado.
In 1981, Duncan became a member of the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Museum of Art and was soon elected as a member of France’s Académie de Marine.
In 1985, Admiral Duncan was referenced in “The Golden Thirteen: Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers.” He was quoted in “Against the Tide: Rickover’s Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy,” regarding Admiral Rickover who pushed to use the power of the atom bomb in the first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus. Duncan is pointed out in “More Than a Uniform: A Navy Woman in a Navy Man’s World” as one of the finest military leaders in the world.
Duncan continued to balance military service with social activities. Perhaps that was key to his success as a naval officer. He was a member of the Chevy Chase Club and an active Episcopalian. He maintained his ties with Lexington, Kentucky and was named a Kentucky Colonel, and inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni. It was while visiting his old Kentucky home he met his second wife, Jean Keyser, whom he married in December 1986 in Coronado, where she still resides.
Admiral Duncan died June 27, 1994. He had two adopted children, Anne and Bruce, and two stepchildren, Casey and Amy.
USS SLC Association Newsletter (1996-1997): n. pag. Print.
Oliver, Dave. Against the Tide: Rickover’s Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Duncan, Charles K. The Reminiscences Of Admiral Charles K. Duncan, U.S. Navy (Ret.). 2015. radio.
“Charles K. Duncan-Personal Page.” Charles K. Duncan-Personal Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Historical San Diego Newspaper
Stillwell, Paul. The Golden Thirteen. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1993. Print.
Collins, Winifred Quick, and Herbert M Levine. More Than A Uniform. Denton, Tex.: University of North Texas Press, 1997. Print.
San Diego Union,. ‘Duncan Assumes Command’. 1961: 20. Print.
San Diego Union,. ‘San Diego Union Sept 24, 1959’. 1959: Vice Admiral of Nationalist Chinese Navy in Coronado. Print.
San Diego Union,. ‘Chinese Navy At NAB For Training’. 1959: n. pag. Print.
http://www.ussastoria.org/In_Memoriam.html
http://www.ussquincy.com/quincyws121200/39_text2.html
http://guadalcanaljournal.com/#sthash.HoT9shoJ.dpuf
https://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/60894/31295007673907.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/korean-conflict/
01-5-61 San Diego Union, pp 20.
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