Joseph Taussig

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Joseph Taussig bigraphy, stories - United States Navy admiral

Joseph Taussig : biography

30 August 1877 – 29 October 1947

Joseph Knefler Taussig (30 August 1877 – 29 October 1947) was a highly decorated Vice Admiral in the United States Navy. He served in the Spanish–American War, Philippine-American War, China Relief Expedition, Cuban Pacification, World War I, Second Nicaraguan Campaign, and World War II.

Another clash with FDR

Conflict with Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt

Promoted to captain in September 1918, he was assigned to head the Division of Enlisted Personnel of the Bureau of Navigation. Aware of the inadequacies of manpower from his experience in the fleet during World War I, in 1920, he was embroiled in a publicized dispute with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt and testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Navy Affairs regarding the personnel shortage in the Navy, stating that navy department heads had failed "to take adequate steps to provide personnel necessary for the proper conduct of the navy during the war." For his outspoken views, Taussig earned the lifetime enmity of Roosevelt, who was in a political fight with the Republican Party over his nomination as Vice President, and wrote a sharp letter to the navy subcommittee denying Taussig’s charges.

Taussig candidly maintained that, "the Navy was far from being ready for War… and the enlisted personnel was entirely inadequate for the proper manning of our already completed ships on a peace time basis, and was dangerously inadequate should we suddenly be thrown into war." Secretary Josephus Daniels was angered by Taussig’s dissent and denied publication of Taussig’s prize-winning essay on naval personnel in the Naval Institute press.

World War I – "We are ready now, Sir."

In July 1916, after serving in battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and on staffs afloat, Taussig was assigned command of Division 8, Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet. With Britain faring badly due to unchecked U-Boat attacks on commercial shipping in the North Atlantic, President Woodrow Wilson ordered Division 8 to Queenstown, Ireland in May 1917, the first group of American destroyers sent abroad during World War I. After a 9-day Atlantic crossing most of the time in a severe southeast gale, the destroyer division arrived at Queenstown with orders to cooperate with the British Navy. At a dinner in the Americans’ honor the night of their arrival, the Commander in Chief of the Coasts of Ireland, Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly asked Commander Taussig, "When will you be ready to go to sea?" Taussig replied in the now famous words; "We are ready now, sir, that is, as soon as we finish refueling." For an attack on a German U-Boat on 29 July 1917, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, at that time the Navy’s second highest valor award. In 1917, he was promoted to commander and returned to the U.S. in December to command the newly-commissioned destroyer . By May 1918, was in Europe, patrolling off the coast of France. The journal that Commander Taussig kept of his service in World War I was published in 1996 by the Naval War College Press under the title, "The Queenstown Patrol, 1917". With the war winding down, he was detached to the Bureau of Navigation in August 1918.

Inter-war years

In 1919 he attended the senior course at the Naval War College, graduating in 1920 and appointed to the staff of the president of the Naval War College. The following year he was a staff member in the Tactics Department. In 1921 he was assigned to command , later renamed , flagship of the United States Fleet. Promoted to captain, in 1922 his ship, that he commanded for eleven months, rendered assistance to the victims of an earthquake and tidal wave in Chile. For his actions, he was awarded the Order of the Merit of Chile for his efforts in the earthquake relief during 1922. In 1923, he was Assistant Chief of Staff, to Admiral Hillary P. Jones, Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet for six months.

From July 1923 to June 1926, he was on the staff of the Naval War College where he was Chairman of the Strategy Department. In 1926, he was given command of the light cruiser . From 1927 to 1930, he returned to the Naval War College as Chief of Staff and on 16 May 1930, was given command of the battleship . He was promoted to rear admiral in 1932 and served as chief of staff to Vice Admiral Richard H. Leigh, Commander Battleship Division, Battle Fleet. In 1933 he was appointed Assistant Chief of Naval Operations in the Navy Department. However, with Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) having been inaugurated President of the United States in January of that year, according to Admiral Frederic S. Withington, Taussig never had a chance of promotion beyond rear admiral because of his dispute with FDR in the 1920s. FDR was criticized by newspaper columnists Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen in 1936 when instead of appointing Taussig commander of the United States Fleet, he was assigned to command Battleship Division 3, Battle Force, with his flag on the . In 1937, still with the rank of rear admiral, he was appointed commander of Cruisers, Scouting Force, with his flag on the heavy cruiser . In May 1938, he was attached as commandant, Norfolk Navy Yard and Fifth Naval District, a billet his father Edward D. Taussig had filled thirty years earlier.