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("I was born on the banks of the Russian River of California")
"I was born on the banks of the Russian River of California"
https://www.amazon.com/Admiral-ambassador-William-Harrison-Standley/dp/B0007DJWEU?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0007DJWEU
William Standley was born on December 18, 1872 in Ukiah, California, United States, where his grandfather operated a hotel and his father, "Doc" Standley, was Mendocino County Sheriff. He grew up on his father's ranch, where he developed his habits of frank speaking and direct action.
At the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, he played football and baseball and graduated in the middle of the class of 1895.
He was student at the Naval War College, from which he graduated in 1921.
Standley spent the mandatory two years at sea, on the cruiser Olympia in the Far East, prior to receiving his commission as ensign. During the Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection, Standley served on the gunboat Yorktown, and received a commendation for bravery while leading a scouting party ashore at Baler in April 1899.
After several brief tours of duty ashore and afloat, he went to American Samoa with the rank of lieutenant (1904) for three years. Standley served aboard three vessels in the Pacific before assignment as aide to two commandants at Mare Island, California (1911 - 1914), and as director of the wartime expansion of the physical plant of the Naval Academy (1916 - 1919). Success in the latter post won him promotion to captain, command of the battleship Virginia, and then assignment as student at the Naval War College, from which he graduated in 1921.
He outfitted and brought into commission the airship tender Wright (1921). Standley quickly became a prominent figure in the navy, first as assistant chief of staff to the Battle Fleet commander, Admiral E. W. Eberle (1921 - 1923), and then as head of the War Plans Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. After commanding the battleship California in the Pacific (1926 - 1927), he was director of fleet training (1927 - 1928) and assistant chief of naval operations (1928 - 1930).
After advancing to the rank of full admiral in May 1933, he commanded the Battle Force for only a few weeks before his appointment as chief of naval operations on July 1. Because of the chronic illness of Secretary Claude A. Swanson, Standley often acted as secretary of the navy. He presided over what he termed a "businessman's navy, " his major task being the attempt to convince Congress of the need for modernizing and replacing ships in the midst of the Great Depression.
Although generally successful - as shown by the Vinson-Trammel Act (1934) - he failed to persuade Congress or the Roosevelt administration to build the navy up to the treaty strength set at the 1930 London conference. He represented the United States at the naval disarmament conferences at London in 1934-1935. When the Japanese delegates complained about their inferior quota of warships, he defiantly offered to "swap navies" with them and still defeat them.
Standley retired on January 1, 1937, when he reached the statutory retirement age of sixty-four. He helped to run the New York World's Fair in 1939. He remained an outspoken critic of fascist dictators, and in June 1940 he openly advocated a United States declaration of war against Nazi Germany.
In 1939, Standley became naval adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt; then naval representative on the Priorities Board of the Office of Production Management; and, in March 1941, having returned to active duty, a member of the Production Planning Board.
The Russians admired his firm demeanor and strong support for the second front they wanted so desperately. But the arduous Russian winters, compounded by his seventy years, finally convinced Standley to resign in May 1943, although he did not leave Russia until October.
Twelve years later he published a memoir on his ambassadorship that was based on his detailed diary: Admiral Ambassador to Russia (1955), written with Rear Admiral Arthur A. Ageton. He served with the Office of Strategic Services from March 1944 until the end of the war.
While heading a California crime commission in 1948, he blamed the Communists for American labor union troubles. Before and after the war he was a director of Pan American Airways.
Standley died on October 25, 1963 at San Diego, California.
William Harrison Standley was promoted to rear admiral in and vice admiral for his brilliant command of the fleet's destroyers (1930 - 1931) and its cruisers (1931 - 1933). Standley served as the American naval member on the Beaverbrook-Harriman Special War Supply Mission to the Soviet Union. Upon his return, Standley became a member of the Navy Board for Production Awards.
("I was born on the banks of the Russian River of California")
Standley's connection with the Soviet Union began when he was U. S. Navy member of the Beaverbrook-Harriman lend-lease mission to that country during the autumn of 1941. After the war Standley, a dedicated foe of Communism, joined or supported several rightwing causes, notably the hysterical crusade of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
On May 28, 1898, he married Evelyn C. Curtis; they had five children.
