Admiral Stirling was a controversial figure while in the Navy because of his outspoken critical views on international affairs and naval policies and procedures.
Born in Vallejo, California, Admiral Stirling was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1892, twenty-nine years after his father, who also attained the rank of Rear Admiral. He served in the Spanish-American War in Cuban waters, in the Orient during the Philippine Insurrection, as a submarine commander during the World War, as commander of the Yangtze River Patrol and as Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District in Honolulu in the Twenties, and as Commandant of both the Third Naval District and the Brooklyn Naval Yard in the Thirties.
While on active duty, he was a frAdmiral Stirling was a controversial figure while in the Navy because of his outspoken critical views on international affairs and naval policies and procedures.
Born in Vallejo, California, Admiral Stirling was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1892, twenty-nine years after his father, who also attained the rank of Rear Admiral. He served in the Spanish-American War in Cuban waters, in the Orient during the Philippine Insurrection, as a submarine commander during the World War, as commander of the Yangtze River Patrol and as Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District in Honolulu in the Twenties, and as Commandant of both the Third Naval District and the Brooklyn Naval Yard in the Thirties.
While on active duty, he was a frequent contributor to newspapers of articles on Navy strategy and tactics, with particular emphasis on the relation of a strong Navy to foreign policy. His outspoken articles on the Soviet Union in 1935 lead to a controversy in which his ouster from the Navy was demanded by Pacific organizations and rejected by the Navy Department. One of his critiques, which was the immediate cause of the furor, appealed for a united front against communism and suggested the possibility of “a great crusade” against Bolshevism.
As the controversy grew, Secretary of the Navy Claude Swanson said that no disciplinary action would be taken, but that the Navy department considered it “improper for officers of the Navy to publish controversial comment on international issues which might be construed as offensive to foreign governments or their nationals.”
This was the last of his controversies while on active duty. He retired in 1936 at the statuary age of 64, but continued his critical articles on world affairs. He was an advocate of preparedness, a large Navy and the doctrine that offense is the best defense.
At one time in 1939, he urged the United States to get into the war first as the best way to defend American interests. Despite this seemingly belligerent approach to world problems, he was, like many top-ranking Army and Navy figures, an ardent opponent of war.
At the outbreak of the fighting in Europe, he again urged the United States to join the war. He continued to write newspaper articles and toured the country lecturing. When this country did enter the war, he became a military and naval critic for the United Press and his commentaries appeared in newspapers throughout the nation.
In 1943, he applied for a return to active duty, but Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal replied that there was no post available “suitable to your rank and attainments.”
“All my life I have been called a stormy petrel,” Admiral Stirling wrote in his autobiography “Sea Duty – The Memoirs of a Fighting Admiral,” published in 1939. “I have never hesitated to reveal what I considered should be brought to public attention, usually within the Navy, but often to a wider public,” he said. “I seem to see some benefits that have come to the Navy through those efforts. I have always believed that a naval man actually is disloyal to his country if he does not reveal acts that are doing harm to his service and show, if he can, how to remedy the fault. An efficient Navy cannot be run with ‘yes men’ only.”
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