RADM United States Navy. 1929 graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland . Author of several books on the history of the United States Navy. Legendary for his naval exploits in China, Indonesia & Australia and for his work as a naval intelligence officer in Stalin's Russia 1942-1944 where he was deeply involved in United States diplomacy. He also wrote for the "Kemp Tolley Papers" which in part chronicles his voyage from China to the Phillipines while Commander of the USS Lanikai immediately after hostilities broke out in World War II. He retired at the rank of Captain in 1959 and received a combat advancement to Rear Admiral on May 24, 1960. Actively served in World War II, The Korean War and the Vietnam War. In 1992 he was made a permanent member of the Defense Attache System Hall of Fame by the Defense Intelligence Agency. On the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II he was invited to the celebration in Moscow.
Comment from Jack Davison:
My Dad, his classmate, quoted him as saying that he carried one of every type of pistol he picked up, friendly or hostile because, You never know what type of ammunition you will be able to pick up in the field."
From: Jack Davison
Kemp Tolley, 92, retired rear admiral, linguist and `legend'
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Kemp Tolley, who said the White House ordered him to use his ship as a target to help drag the United States into World War II in the hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Saturday of complications of a stroke at his home in Corbett, in Northern Baltimore County. He was 92.
Mr. Tolley's command of the Lanikai, then a battered, 27-year-old wooden schooner previously used as a theatrical prop, provided some of the war's more unusual scenes. His 4,000-mile, three-month odyssey was a notable incident in a naval career that stretched from duty on the rivers of China in the 1930s to peacetime in Japan in 1950s.
"The cruise of the Lanikai is one of the great sea adventures of the 20th century," said Capt. James M. Wylie, who works in the office of the assistant chief of missile defense of naval operations in Arlington, Va. "The admiral was a Navy legend. He regaled us with sea stories of the China coast and old Japan. He talked, and we listened."
Comment from Jack Davison:
My Dad, his classmate, quoted him as saying that he carried one of every type of pistol he picked up, friendly or hostile because, You never know what type of ammunition you will be able to pick up in the field."
From: Jack Davison
Kemp Tolley, 92, retired rear admiral, linguist and `legend'
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Kemp Tolley, who said the White House ordered him to use his ship as a target to help drag the United States into World War II in the hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Saturday of complications of a stroke at his home in Corbett, in Northern Baltimore County. He was 92.
Mr. Tolley's command of the Lanikai, then a battered, 27-year-old wooden schooner previously used as a theatrical prop, provided some of the war's more unusual scenes. His 4,000-mile, three-month odyssey was a notable incident in a naval career that stretched from duty on the rivers of China in the 1930s to peacetime in Japan in 1950s.
"The cruise of the Lanikai is one of the great sea adventures of the 20th century," said Capt. James M. Wylie, who works in the office of the assistant chief of missile defense of naval operations in Arlington, Va. "The admiral was a Navy legend. He regaled us with sea stories of the China coast and old Japan. He talked, and we listened."
RADM United States Navy. 1929 graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland . Author of several books on the history of the United States Navy. Legendary for his naval exploits in China, Indonesia & Australia and for his work as a naval intelligence officer in Stalin's Russia 1942-1944 where he was deeply involved in United States diplomacy. He also wrote for the "Kemp Tolley Papers" which in part chronicles his voyage from China to the Phillipines while Commander of the USS Lanikai immediately after hostilities broke out in World War II. He retired at the rank of Captain in 1959 and received a combat advancement to Rear Admiral on May 24, 1960. Actively served in World War II, The Korean War and the Vietnam War. In 1992 he was made a permanent member of the Defense Attache System Hall of Fame by the Defense Intelligence Agency. On the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II he was invited to the celebration in Moscow.
Comment from Jack Davison:
My Dad, his classmate, quoted him as saying that he carried one of every type of pistol he picked up, friendly or hostile because, You never know what type of ammunition you will be able to pick up in the field."
From: Jack Davison
Kemp Tolley, 92, retired rear admiral, linguist and `legend'
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Kemp Tolley, who said the White House ordered him to use his ship as a target to help drag the United States into World War II in the hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Saturday of complications of a stroke at his home in Corbett, in Northern Baltimore County. He was 92.
Mr. Tolley's command of the Lanikai, then a battered, 27-year-old wooden schooner previously used as a theatrical prop, provided some of the war's more unusual scenes. His 4,000-mile, three-month odyssey was a notable incident in a naval career that stretched from duty on the rivers of China in the 1930s to peacetime in Japan in 1950s.
"The cruise of the Lanikai is one of the great sea adventures of the 20th century," said Capt. James M. Wylie, who works in the office of the assistant chief of missile defense of naval operations in Arlington, Va. "The admiral was a Navy legend. He regaled us with sea stories of the China coast and old Japan. He talked, and we listened."
Comment from Jack Davison:
My Dad, his classmate, quoted him as saying that he carried one of every type of pistol he picked up, friendly or hostile because, You never know what type of ammunition you will be able to pick up in the field."
From: Jack Davison
Kemp Tolley, 92, retired rear admiral, linguist and `legend'
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Kemp Tolley, who said the White House ordered him to use his ship as a target to help drag the United States into World War II in the hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor, died Saturday of complications of a stroke at his home in Corbett, in Northern Baltimore County. He was 92.
Mr. Tolley's command of the Lanikai, then a battered, 27-year-old wooden schooner previously used as a theatrical prop, provided some of the war's more unusual scenes. His 4,000-mile, three-month odyssey was a notable incident in a naval career that stretched from duty on the rivers of China in the 1930s to peacetime in Japan in 1950s.
"The cruise of the Lanikai is one of the great sea adventures of the 20th century," said Capt. James M. Wylie, who works in the office of the assistant chief of missile defense of naval operations in Arlington, Va. "The admiral was a Navy legend. He regaled us with sea stories of the China coast and old Japan. He talked, and we listened."
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