William Henry Purnell Blandy (28 June 1890 – 12 January 1954), known to close associates as "Spike", was an

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

28 June 1890, Blandy graduated first in his class from the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

in 1913. He participated in the

occupation of Veracruz The United States occupation of Veracruz (April 21 to November 23, 1914) began with the Battle of Veracruz and lasted for seven months. The incident came in the midst of poor diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, and was re ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in 1914 and served on board the

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

(BB-30) with the

British Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During World War II he was Chief of the

Bureau of Ordnance The Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) was a United States Navy organization, which was responsible for the procurement, storage, and deployment of all naval weapons, between the years 1862 and 1959. History Congress established the Bureau in the Departmen ...

from 1941 to 1943. Here he had a controversial role in the infamous torpedo scandal involving the initially practically useless

Mark 14 torpedo The Mark 14 torpedo was the United States Navy's standard submarine-launched anti-ship torpedo of World War II. This weapon was plagued with many problems which crippled its performance early in the war. It was supplemented by the Mark 18 elec ...

, and the long delays incurred on the work testing and launching the electric

Mark 18 torpedo The Mark 18 torpedo was an electric torpedo used by the United States Navy during World War II. The Mark 18 was the first electric storage battery torpedo manufactured for the US Navy and it was designed primarily for use as a submarine-launched ...

. In December 1943 he became Commander, Group 1, Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet, and commanded the pre-invasion bombardment group during the campaign for

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

. One account of Admiral Blandy during the Iwo campaign recalls:

The U.S.S. ''Estes'' was positioned about two miles off-shore during the bombardment, and Admiral Blandy, being the old Gunnery type, kept ordering the captain to come in a little closer so he could "..see the whites of their eyes..". About the time we would be within a little less than a mile from the beaches, a battery of shore guns up on the side of Mount Surabachi would start taking pot-shots at us. Geysers of water would erupt on either side of the ship, and the voice of Vice Admiral
Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...
in overall charge of the campaign on the USS ''Mount McKinley'' — a sister ship to the USS ''Estes'', — would come in over the "TBS" ship to ship radio ordering Blandy to "...get your ensoredout of there before you get it blown off!". We would then back off to a safe distance, only to have the same thing happen a few hours later.

After the war he commanded Joint Task Force 1 during the atomic bomb tests at

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Second ...

In mid to late 1945, Rear Admiral Blandy served as Commander, Destroyers, Pacific Fleet (

ComDesPac {{Short description, Defunct American naval command of the 1940s Destroyer Force, United States Pacific Fleet, usually known as COMDESPAC, was a type command of the United States Pacific Fleet from 1940 until the Destroyer Force was combined with Cr ...

). In 1946, he made a famous speech in response to public criticism of the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll:

“The bomb will not start a chain-reaction in the water, converting it all to gas, and letting all the ships on all the oceans drop down to the bottom. It will not blow out the bottom of the sea and let all the water run down the hole. It will not destroy gravity. I am not an atomic playboy, as one of my critics labelled me, exploding these bombs to satisfy my personal whim.”

In late 1946, a minor controversy erupted over a published photo ''(shown at left)'' of Vice Admiral Blandy and his wife cutting an "atomic cake" in an event celebrating the disbandment of the team behind

Operation Crossroads Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the ...

.7 September 2010
The Atomic Cake Controversy of 1946
Blog site: ''Conelrad Adjacent.'' He commanded the 2nd Task Fleet and later served as Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet from 1947 to 1950. Admiral Blandy retired in 1950. He died on 12 January 1954 at the U.S. Navy Hospital in

St. Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ro ...

, New York, and was buried in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

. File:USS Blandy (DD-943) underway at sea on 19 December 1956.jpg, USS ''Blandy'' DD-943

Namesake

In 1956, the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

was named in his honor.

In popular culture

In 1989, rock musician

Steve Stevens Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – "Top Gun Anthem" – for w ...

used the original audio of Blandy's "I am not an atomic playboy" speech at the beginning of the opening and title track of his

Atomic Playboys ''Atomic Playboys'' is the first studio album by guitarist Steve Stevens, released in 1989 through Warner Bros. Records;Book, John"Atomic Playboys - Steve Stevens' Atomic Playboys" ''AllMusic''. All Media Network. Retrieved 2013-08-22. a remaster ...

album. The sample also appears in "David Lange You Da Bomb!" by New Zealand musician Tiki Taane in 2009. The clip was also used by

demogroup Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demogroups form a subculture collectively known as the demoscene. Groups frequently consist of students, young computer enthusiasts who spend ...

Future Crew Future Crew was a Finnish demogroup that created PC demos and software, active mostly between 1987 and 1994. History The group was founded in 1986 by PSI (Sami Tammilehto) and JPM (Jussi Markula) as a Commodore 64 group, before moving to the PC ...

in their demo

Second Reality Second Reality (originally titled Unreal ] - The 2nd Reality) is an IBM PC compatible Demo (computer programming)">demo created by Future Crew. It debuted at the Assembly (demo party), Assembly 1993 demoparty on July 30, 1993, where it was entere ...

. "Future Crew: Second Reality"
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

References

Attribution

External links

*
USS ''Blandy'' DD 943 Association website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blandy, William H. P. 1890 births 1954 deaths Military personnel from New York City United States Navy admirals United States Navy World War II admirals United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy personnel of World War I Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal Burials at Arlington National Cemetery United States naval attachés