After Pearl Harbor, Admiral Ernest King took command of the U.S. Fleet on December 30, 1941, and became Chief of Naval Operations in March 1942. The Navy’s historians describe his “volcanic temperament.” Roosevelt said that King shaved every morning with a blowtorch. His daughter said he was the most even-tempered man in the Navy: “He is always in a rage.”
King was widely reputed to have said, “When they get in trouble, they send for the sons of bitches.” Asked about it, he said he had not said it, but would have if he had thought of it.