Posted on: Saturday, December 15, 2001

Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, military commander, dies at 95

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

Sharp: Critical of U.S. effort in Vietnam

Retired Adm. Ulysses S. Grant Sharp, who served in Hawai'i as Pacific military commander during the Vietnam War, died Dec. 12 at his home in San Diego. He was 95.

Sharp was born in Chinook, Mont., and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1927. His Navy career spanned 41 years and included combat operations in the Pacific and Atlantic during World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

As deputy chief of naval operations for plans and policy, Sharp was instrumental in formulating the Navy's policy during the Cuban missile crisis. In Korea, he commanded a destroyer squadron and was the 7th Fleet planning officer for the Inchon invasion.

Sharp was commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1963-64 and he directed 450 ships that operated from the West Coast and throughout the Pacific and Far East.

From 1964 until his retirement in 1968, Sharp was commander in chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific. In that post, commonly known as CinCPac, he was in charge of 940,000 Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force troops.

His military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal with Gold Star, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star Medal with Gold Star, World War II Victory Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal.

He later became frustrated with the U.S. effort in the war, particularly the refusal of the Johnson administration to authorize an expansion of bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

Sharp, who retired in 1968, made his criticism public in May 1969, when he published an article in Reader's Digest titled "We Could Have Won in Vietnam Long Ago." He also voiced his frustrations in the 1978 book "Strategy for Defeat: Vietnam in Retrospect."

Sharp also was a director with San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and the Holiday Bowl football game.

Sharp is survived by his wife, Nina; children, Patricia Ann Milham and retired Rear Adm. Grant Alexander Sharp; sister, Margaret Angus; four grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

A service will be held on the Mainland.