1972 - Rickover - Weapon System Reliability

Rickover provided this unsolicited input in 1972 concerning the need for improvement in weapon system reliability.

He was writing Admiral I.C. Kidd who has an interesting and impressive background - see below.

Isaac Campbell Kidd, Jr. (August 14, 1919 – June 27, 1999) was an American Admiral in the United States Navy who served as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO's Atlantic Fleet, and later as commander in chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet from 1975 to 1978. He was the son of Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who was killed on the bridge of the battleship Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Biography

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Kidd graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1941; he was commissioned an ensign on December 19, 1941, just 12 days after his father was killed aboard his flagship. As Time Magazine described the event, when Kidd received his commission as ensign "the U.S. Naval Academy and its guests broke into a thunderous cheer— an unprecedented demonstration in honor of Ensign Kidd and his father." During World War II he served as a gunnery and operations officer on destroyers in both Europe and the Pacific, and participated in various Allied landings in the Mediterranean as well as at Iwo Jima.

His 23 years at sea during his 40-year naval career included 15 years in command of destroyers, destroyer divisions and squadrons and three U.S. fleets in the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean; he also served as executive assistant and senior aide to the Chief of Naval Operations in the early 1960s, earning citations for his efforts in the Cuban Missile Crisis and several other crises. In 1967, he headed the court of inquiry into the USS Liberty incident during the Six-Day War in June of that year. From 1975 to 1978, Kidd served as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.