Retired Adm. R. B. Carney; Helped Plan Major Sea Victory in WWII

Adm. Robert Bostwick Carney, planner of key Pacific naval battles in World War II and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s first chief of naval operations, died of cardiac arrest at his home here Monday. He was 95.

Carney, chief of staff to World War II’s legendary Adm. William (Bull) Halsey, was awarded the Navy Cross for his role in planning U.S. operations in the battle of Leyte Gulf in October, 1944, in which 60 Japanese ships were sunk at a cost of seven U.S. vessels. He later headed the group that planned the invasion of Okinawa.

Among other assignments after the war, he served as commander in chief of NATO forces in southern Europe.

Eisenhower named him chief of naval operations in May, 1953, at the same time he nominated Adm. Arthur W. Radford as the first Navy man to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Navy and Air Force were then locked in a battle over the role of the B-36 intercontinental bomber in the nation’s defense.

Carney, who was charged with holding down budgets after the Korean War, retired in 1955 amid speculation that his leak to the news media of the strength of Communist Chinese forces off the Formosa Strait had hastened his departure.

He later became a consultant to Westinghouse Electric Corp.