This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Kent Weekly (SS/DSV) (DBF), EMCS
to remember
Eller, Ernest McNeill (Judge), RADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Marion, VA
Last Address Annapolis, MD
Date of Passing Jul 30, 1992
Location of Interment Salem Moravian Graveyard - Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Ernest was the son of Edward Edward Eller and Elizabeth McNeill Eller. He attended NorthWilkesboroHigh School and NC State University, and entered the United StatesNavalAcademy in 1921. He graduated in 1925 and received his Master of Arts in Psychology from GeorgeWashingtonUniversity in 1934.
He served in World War II and Korea. He entered as an Ensign and retired with the rank of Rear Admiral. He served on the USS Utah, the USS Texas, the USS S-33, the USS Saratoga. He served on the staff of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC), as Assistant Gunnery and Anti-submarine Training Officer. He also taught classes at the NavalAcademy.
He was awarded the Legion of Merit, the American Defense Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal, the China Service Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. In 1937 he received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Okinawa Gunto Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
