Charles Turner Joy

Background

Charles Turner was born on February 17, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, the son of Duncan Joy, a prosperous cotton broker, and Lucy Barlow Turner.

Education

Joy was educated at private secondary schools prior to entering the U. S. Naval Academy in 1912. He was graduated and commissioned ensign in 1916.

In 1921 he was selected for the navy's elite postgraduate program in ordnance engineering. He continued that course for the next two years at various places, including the University of Michigan, from which he received the M. S. in 1922.

Career

Joy first served in the battleship Pennsylvania, which became the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet and late in 1918 escorted the ship carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference.

During 1923-1925, as a lieutenant, he had his first duty in the Far East, serving on the staff of the commander of the Yangtze Patrol. Over the next seventeen years Joy served at sea as the executive officer of destroyer Pope and assistant gunnery officer in battleship California, and on the staff of the commander of destroyers, Battle Force. His first command was of the destroyer Litchfield in 1933-1935. These tours alternated with shore billets in his ordnance specialty, including assignments in the aviation ordnance section of the Bureau of Ordnance, the Naval Mine Depot at Yorktown, Virginia, and the ordnance and gunnery department at the Naval Academy.

In 1941-1942, Joy served in the Pacific on board the cruiser Indianapolis and later the carrier Lexington as operations officer for the commander of the Scouting Force. Despite the alleged battleship orientation of the gunnery specialists, Joy was decorated early in the war for planning successful carrier task force engagements with Japanese forces near Rabaul and New Guinea. Later in 1942 he took command of the cruiser Louisville, which subsequently saw combat in the Solomons and Aleutians campaigns.

From August 1943 to April 1944, Joy headed the Pacific Plans Division in the Washington headquarters of the Navy. At the end of that tour he was promoted to rear admiral and returned to the combat zone as commander of Cruiser Division 6. During the next year Joy participated in virtually all of the major operations marking the American advance across the Pacific, including the Marianas campaign, the recapture of the Philippines, the seizure of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and fast carrier task force raids against other Japanese positions. His forces were noted for their effective shore bombardment and antiaircraft gunnery.

Near the end of World War II, Joy commanded Amphibious Group 2, which was preparing for the invasion of Japan. Detached in September 1945, he proceeded to China, where for the next eight months he commanded Task Force 73 and later Task Force 74 operating in the Yangtze River and from Hong Kong. These units cleared mines, transported Chinese troops reoccupying Japanese positions, and undertook other postwar operations. From 1946 to 1949, Joy resumed his ordnance specialty as commander of the Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia, which tested and assisted in the development of new naval ordnance. In August 1949, Joy was promoted to vice admiral and appointed commander of the U. S. Naval Force, Far East, with headquarters in Tokyo.

Upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, he became the Allied naval commander for that conflict. His ships landed Allied troops in the war zone and supported them with supplies, gunfire, and carrier air strikes; blockaded North Korea; undertook mine-sweeping; and patrolled the Taiwan Straits to prevent hostile action between mainland China and Taiwan. Joy was a key leader in the highly successful Inchon landing of September 1950. By November 1950 he commanded 400 Allied and American ships. For ten months after July 1951, Joy additionally served as the senior United Nations delegate at the Korean Armistice Conference held at Kaesong and, later, Panmunjom.

He asked to be relieved of his assignment in May 1952. Following the Korean armistice of 1953, he wrote How Communists Negotiate (1955). Joy served as superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1952 to 1954, then retired with the rank of admiral.

He died in San Diego, California.

Achievements

• Charles Turner Joy was notable for its versatility. He was a highly effective operational commander and planner who displayed flexibility in integrating new air and amphibious tactics into the fleet. He made significant contributions as an ordnance specialist. Finally, in his role as negotiator and through his writings on the relationship of force and diplomacy (the most famous gis work - How Communists Negotiate), Joy was an important figure in the history of American foreign relations in the period during World War II and the Korean War. He received worldwide notice for his calm, tenacious, but fruitless efforts to achieve a cease-fire agreements. The destroyer USS Turner Joy (DD-951) was named for him.

Views

Because of the failure of American will to seek military victory, Joy believed that the 1953 armistice represented a triumph for mainland China.

Quotations: Joy concluded that only the "imminent threat of application of our military power" would compel Communist governments throughout the world to "negotiate seriously. " He wrote that the "greatest single influence on the Korean armistice negotiations was the failure of the United States to take punitive action" against China following its entry into the conflict.

Personality

Charles Turner was reserved, modest, and thoroughly competent naval officer.

Connections

On October 16, 1924, Joy married Martha Ann Chess; they had three children.

Father:

Duncan Joy

Mother:

Lucy Barlow Turner

Spouse:

Martha Ann Chess