This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Kent Weekly (SS/DSV) (DBF), EMCS
to remember
Smoot, Roland Nesbit, VADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Provo, UT
Last Address Seal Beach, CA
Date of Passing Feb 13, 1984
Location of Interment Forest Lawn Memorial Park - Glendale, California
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy. Smoot was the senior U.S. military advisor to President Chiang Kai-skek in 1958-62 during Taiwanese and Chinese tensions which became a major campaign issue between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. A graduate of the NavalAcademy in 1923, he served on destroyers, cruisers, submarines and battleships during his 40 year career. He held two Navy Crosses, one for directing a destroyer squadron against the Japanese in the WWII battle of the SurigaoStraits and the other for his efforts during the invasion of Okinawa in the latter stages of the war. After retirement be became president of an oil drilling firm. He was also president of Leisure World's home owner association in Seal Beach, California and was a board member (Council of Regents) of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks, Glendale, California. He was the nephew of Reed Smoot, U.S. Senator from Utah, who was a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and at the time of Senator Smoot's death, was third in succession to become President of the Mormon church.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Division: Destroyer Squadron 56
General Orders: Commander 7th Fleet: Serial 13680 (December 7, 1944)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain Roland Nesbit Smoot (NSN: 0-58232), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commander, Attack Section ONE, Destroyer Squadron FIFTY-SIX, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Surigao Strait during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in the Philippine Islands on the night of 24 - 25 October 1944. Leading his ships in a daring and successful attack on the enemy battle-line, by his courage, skill in combat, and determination, Captain Smoot gave encouragement to his force in a manner that caused his action to be very instrumental in the success of this most difficult operations. This successful attack contributed in large measure to eliminating an imminent and dangerous threat to our transports and other ships in Leyte Gulf. Captain Smoot's high professional skill, forceful leadership, and gallant devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Central Pacific Campaign (1941-43)/Battle of Midway
From Month/Year
June / 1942
To Month/Year
June / 1942
Description The Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy (USN), under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo on Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863.
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped that another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific.
The Japanese plan was to lure the United States' aircraft carriers into a trap. The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii itself.
The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions.Most significantly, American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, all part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—and a heavy cruiser were sunk at a cost of one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.
