Until a couple of years back I hadn’t heard about Admiral Frank H. Schofield, who was born on a tenant farm near Branchport, back in 1869, and even then I had only the sketchiest information.
*But then on February 1 we had a Steuben County Historical Society Winter Lecture by Rich MacAlpine, who has studied 12,000 family letters relating to this unfortunately-forgotten man. (The admiral died in 1942.) Rich has also written a book on the man.
*Frank’s father, who had fought in the Civil War, was a tenant farmer around Yates County. This meant that they moved from time to time.. and it also meant that they didn’t have much money.
*All of which together meant that it was hard for a driven, high-achieving boy like Frank to get an education. Luckily his parents supported his efforts, sacrificing the contributions he could have made on the farm, and he attended Penn Yan Academy for what we would call high school.
*Until the money ran out. Without tuition, Frank would miss or delay his senior year. But the principal suggested that he sit the exam for West Point, where he could get a free education. He did excellently, but the Point balked at admitting a 16 year-old. Hard-driving Frank took the exam for Annapolis, won admission as a midshipman, and finished second in his class.
*When the Spanish-American War broke out he wrangled a transfer from the Pacific to the Caribbean, served as executive officer on a gunboat, and took part in combat. Later he served the navy at the Colt factory in Hartford as an insoector of naval weaponry, and patented a quick-release mechanism for shipboard guns.
*As our entry into World War I approached he was part of a naval team working out convoy systems. Their work was successful, and when we joined the fight Frank went to London, where he served on the staff of our European naval commander. This in turn led to his being appointed as a technical advisor at the Versailles peace conference in 1919.
*Both before and after the war he had command experience, helming a supply ship, a destroyer, and the battleship Texas, then commanding squadrons and divisions of ships, besides a few weeks as acting governor of Guam.
*In 1931 he jumped two steps in rank to full admiral, becoming Commander-in-Chief, U.S Fleet, the highest position in the navy. As part of maneuvers the following year, he tested out an aerial attack on Pearl Harbor. (Commanding the aviation forces was future admiral John Towers, who learned to fly at Hammondsport in 1911.)
*The “attacking” force raced toward Hawaii from the north and launched aircraft from carriers at dawn. Referees ruled that they had wrecked the army air fields AND the battleships in harbor. The attackers then escaped, completely evading the defenders.
*If all this sounds familiar, it’s the same playbook the Japanese used nine years later. Schofield retired a few months after the war games, and his successors insisted that the spectacular “attack” had been a fluke… that airplanes and aircraft carriers were actually only a minor threat. The whole world would soon learn differently, but Admiral Schofield died just two and a half months after Pearl Harbor. Too bad we didn’t listen to him, Jack Towers, and other far-seeing officers.
*At least we can recognize that Yates County is honored to be the home of a man like Admiral Frank.