Admiral Richard Conolly
About the Artifact
Named blue Service coat of Admiral Conolly. Note rank is vice-admiral which is correct as he was reduced in rank during his tenure as commandant naval collage.
A Bit Of History About Admiral Conolly
Admiral Conolly participated in the 1942 attacks on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands and in April his destroyers served as escort for the aircraft carrier Hornet, from which Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle's aircraft took off for the first bombing raid on Tokyo.
Between March and October 1943 Conolly served with the Amphibious Force Atlantic Fleet, taking part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy. Transferred to the Pacific, he was with amphibious forces in the Pacific and participated in the landings on Kwajalein, Wake and Marcus Islands
Conolly gained the nickname "Close-In Conolly" from his insistence that fire support ships should be extremely close to the beach during amphibious assaults. Conolly believed that strong fortifications could be neutralized only by direct hits, which could only be achieved from the shortest possible range.
Conolly was naval representative to the 1946 Paris Peace Conference. He commanded the United States Twelfth Fleet from September 1946 until January 1947, then United States Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean from 1947 until 1950.
Conolly's last assignment was as President of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, between 1950 and 1953. Conolly retired with the rank of admiral in November 1953, and was then the president of Long Island University until 1962.