The Kimmel family and its supporters refuse to surrender. On 6 November 2003, the only living son and three grandsons of Husband Kimmel staged a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The event sustained their efforts to persuade the President of the United States to issue a proclamation, posthumously nominating Kimmel and Walter Short, respectively the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army commanders during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, for retirement at their highest wartime ranks—Admiral and Lieutenant General—under the Officer Personnel Act of 1947.
According to Admiral Kimmel's son, Edward R. "Ned" Kimmel, supporters of this effort "are at war with the Department of Defense." After what he refers to as being "stonewalled at every turn" by the bureaucracy in the Pentagon (and in the White House, including a snubbing from Chief of Staff Andrew Card), he said, "I am now seeking assistance from the Press."
As part of the Armed Forces Spending Authorization Act of 2001, both houses of Congress voted unanimously in September 2000 to exonerate Admiral Kimmel and General Short and to ask the President for the elusive restoration of rank. But congressional action apparently is not enough. When asked exactly what the family and its advocates are seeking, grandson Manning M. Kimmel IV replied, "It's real simple. We need one sentence from the Commander-in-Chief."
Grandson Thomas K. Kimmel Jr. drew a parallel between the numerous Pearl Harbor investigations and the Kean Commission's current investigation of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. "You might call the comparison tenuous," he said. "Actually, the parallel is frightening. . . . [B]y declining to determine true accountability for the disaster at Pearl Harbor, an entire parade of administrations may have laid the groundwork for the success of the 9/11 attack. . . . And now, those same dynamics, which block accountability for the 9/11 disaster, may unwittingly lay the foundation for the next attack." In fact, Admiral Kimmel's son Ned volunteered to testify before the Kean Commission after reading about Chairman Thomas H. Kean's wish for more success than the "much criticized panels created after the bombing of Pearl Harbor."
The featured speaker was Dr. Michael Gannon, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History from the University of Florida and a respected World War II historian, who presented "new evidence" that Kimmel and Short supporters claim bolsters their case. One of the key pieces of information, according to Gannon, comes from recently discovered documents indicating official Navy knowledge that the Japanese had developed successful shallow-water torpedoes, a fact never passed on to the Pearl Harbor commanders.
The second key element in what the Kimmel family calls the vindication "smoking gun" points to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King's charge of dereliction of duty in 1944, based on Admiral Kimmel's choice of sectors in which long-range aerial reconnaissance would be conducted. Some sectors had been identified as "more dangerous," according to Admiral King, and Admiral Kimmel chose the wrong ones. But Gannon says that "recent research" (the basis of which he acknowledged using for a December 1994 article in the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings) indicates no such "more dangerous" list. Furthermore, Admiral Kimmel did not have sufficient numbers of patrol aircraft (49 PBY Catalinas) to conduct full-range surveillance over any one sector for more than four or five days. "Thus," said Gannon, "if following the so-called 'war warning' of 27 November Kimmel had thrown all his patrol aircraft into a single-sector search, the entire force would be down for repair or overhaul by 2 December, leaving the balance of days prior to 7 December unattended."
Had the shallow-water torpedo information not been withheld from Admiral Kimmel at Pearl Harbor, said Gannon, "alarm bells would have sounded insistently in Kimmel's staff offices. But the knowledge was deep-sixed until found by a researcher 60 years later. Where now is the dereliction?"
According to the Kimmel family and retired Naval Reserve Captain Vincent J. Colan, the matter remains mired in the Department of Defense, apparently in the office of Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness, David S. C. Chu. The department allegedly has drafted two memoranda: a "Do" recommendation, with evidence to support the restoration of rank, and a "Don't" recommendation, with arguments against such an action. Efforts by Captain Colan to obtain copies of their contents have thus far proved futile.
"It's totally political," said former Chief of Naval Operations retired Admiral James Holloway. "We have to find a way that the President could make this judgment and politically benefit from it." As of press time, neither the Department of Defense nor the White House has made a further move on what has become known as "The Kimmel Case."