Lectures of Opportunity: "Pacific Sentinel: The Life and Career of Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell"

Pacific Sentinel: The Life and Career of Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell

Admiral Harry Yarnell is an unheralded but pivotal figure in the development of the U.S. Navy’s strategy and force structure in the decades leading up to World War II. During his naval career, he served in the Spanish-American War, then later as a war planner on Admiral William Sims’ staff in London during World War I, followed by a tour as an inaugural member of the Navy’s War Plans Division that drew up the earliest interwar iterations of what became War Plan Orange. Later, Yarnell commanded the navy’s carrier force and helped to develop carrier tactics during their formative period, and he ended his active-duty career as commander of the Asiatic Fleet during the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. This lecture will focus on three distinct periods in his career where he designed U.S. strategy in the Pacific, shaped the force needed to wage a trans-Pacific campaign, and then implemented U.S. policy in east Asia in the face of Japanese aggression.

About this Lecture

Lectures of Opportunity offers U.S. Naval War College (NWC) students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to learn more about national and international socio-political subjects that may be of relevance to the NWC community.