Admiral Kidd retired in 1978 as commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet and supreme commander of NATO forces in the Atlantic. He then put his expertise to work for various public agencies in Washington, lectured widely on maritime law in the United States and abroad and taught a course on the subject at the College of William and Mary.
In 23 years of sea duty, he commanded destroyers, destroyer divisions and Navy fleets in the Mediterranean, the Pacific and the Atlantic.
As chief of materiel at the Pentagon in the early 1970's, he oversaw Navy procurement, logistics and labor relations and supervised 350,000 uniformed and civilian personnel.
The admiral, who was known as Ike, was born into a Navy family in Cleveland and graduated from the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, in 1942. His father, Rear Adm. Isaac Kidd Sr., was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, aboard his flagship, the battleship Arizona.
As a newly commissioned officer, Ensign Kidd was assigned to convoy duty in the North Atlantic. He later served as a gunnery officer aboard a destroyer in the Allied landings in Sicily and Italy, and Iwo Jima in the Pacific theater.
He received his first destroyer command shortly after the war ended, and then alternated between sea and shore assignments before becoming a full admiral in 1971.
Admiral Kidd led an inquiry into the Israeli attack on the American intelligence ship Liberty in the Mediterranean off the Sinai Peninsula during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, an attack that killed 34 officers and men and wounded 171 others. Israel said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian ship, but the inquiry concluded that the Israeli attack was unprovoked.
Admiral Kidd was chief of the Naval Materiel Command from 1971 to 1975 before he assumed his final Atlantic and NATO commands. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star.
He was a member and past president of the International Scuba Association and of the Italian Society of Military Engineers.
Admiral Kidd is married and has three sons and three daughters.
This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?
1. US Census, 1940. Age 20, single, Midshipman at the Naval Academy.
2. The New York Times, article by Wolfgang Saxon dated July 4, 1999. Gives biography information.
3. US Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Gives DOB and DOD.
4. Find a Grave Memorial #6620843. Gives DOB, DOD, birth place, place of death and cemetery.
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