Why Ernest King Was the Most Hated Admiral in the US Navy?

Ernest J. King held more naval power than any American officer before or since — and may have been the most hated man in uniform. He presided over the 1942 U-boat slaughter off America's own coastline, then built the machine that crushed the submarine threat a year later. This is the full reckoning: the convoy disaster and the case against him, the defense the prosecution leaves out, Guadalcanal, the Central Pacific drive, and the Indianapolis court-martial. Most hated, most effective — both at once. Sources: Thomas B. Buell, Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King (Naval Institute Press, 1980) Michael Gannon, Operation Drumbeat (Harper & Row, 1990) Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. I: The Battle of the Atlantic (Little, Brown, 1947) Clay Blair, Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939–1942 (Random House, 1996) Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War (Harper & Row, 1987) Did your father or grandfather serve in the merchant marine off the Eastern seaboard in 1942, or aboard USS Indianapolis? Share their story in the comments. Naval High Command — where admirals' decisions meet consequences, and the sea doesn't forgive the difference.