Rare interview with Adm US Grant Sharp while he was CINC Pacific Forces

[Bob Hudson]

I've been on a binge converting old 16mm movie films to video. The latest is something I've had for years, but had never watched until now. An admiral being interviewed can be boring, but this particular admiral was the Commdander In Chief of the US Pacific Forces: the theatre commander for the Vietnam War. I've read a lot about this admiral but never heard him speak so it was quite interesting to hear him speaking about the ongoing war. I couldn't find anything similar online so far.

 

Admiral US Grant Sharp has been called "the most famous Admiral you never heard of." He was commander of US Naval Forces in the Pacific and then became the commander in chief of all US forces in the Pacific, including those in Vietnam. You've heard of General Westmoreland: Sharp was his boss.

 

After retirement Sharp became an outspoken critic of the air war in Vietnam. Ironically this 16mm film - an ABC News production - is about the bombing of North Vietnam and US aircraft losses.

 

Again, this may well be the only extensive TV interview with Admiral Sharp while he was still on active duty.

 

This is a long program so I broke it into two parts.

 

Here's part 1:

 

[Bob Hudson]

PART 2:

 

[Bob Hudson]

Sharp had an impressive ribbon rack:

 

[dave peifer]

thanks for posting bob.............I have some of sharp's items........................dave

[Bob Hudson]

Here's the box this came in.

 

 

[dave peifer]

where did you pick it up,estate sale?

[Bob Hudson]

where did you pick it up,estate sale?

 

Myself and someone else got called back to the Sharp home after the estate sale because they found a huge trunk full of papers, plaques, etc. I think this came from that lot, but I just sat the film aside because everything else from that estate was pretty special (see http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/103025-four-star-admiral-estate-sale/

 

Sharp's name is not on the film reel or box, so I was surprised to see his image when I looked at the opening frames of the movie with a magnifying gflass (I had forgotten where the film came from). The film was sent by ABC to their affiliate in Honolulu, which no doubt gave it to Sharp.