ARMY & NAVY: Nunc Dimittis

Having been officially pronounced responsible for the disaster of Pearl Harbor, Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel and Major General Walter C. Short asked Secretary of the Navy Knox and Secretary of War Stimson to let them retire from their country’s service. If the President, on the secretaries’ recommendation, said yes, each would get a life pension of $6,000 a year. If he decided instead to dismiss them outright, the.y would have to be vindicated by a court-martial before they could claim their retirement pay. Both the Army and the Navy hoped that their request would be granted. Both services felt that the scapegoats had been pelted enough.