Admiral Kimmel Quotes in Pearl Harbor (2001)

Admiral Kimmel: The smart enemy attacks you exactly where you think you are safe.

Admiral Kimmel: [reading signal] "U.S. Navy believes attack on Pearl Harbor imminent." Well... they're only an hour late.

Admiral Kimmel: It looks good on paper, but for God's sake... that's not a paper fleet sitting out there.

[Halsey has been ordered to take his Task Force to Wake Island to deliver a squadron of fighters]

Admiral Halsey: Kim, level with me. I want a clear directive... If I run into a Jap ship, what action do I take?

Admiral Kimmel: Use your common sense.

Admiral Halsey: That's the best damn order I ever had.

[Halsey walks away, then turns around]

Admiral Halsey: If I see so much as a sampan near it, I'll blow it out of the water.

Admiral Kimmel: It is my duty to inform you that you have been relieved of your command, pending the findings of a court of inquiry.

Captain Torrey: I don't understand, sir.

Admiral Kimmel: You weren't zig-zagging when you took the two torpedoes.

Captain Torrey: I was stretching my fuel, sir.

Admiral Kimmel: If you didn't have fuel to complete your mission, why didn't you turn back for Pearl?

Captain Torrey: My mission was to intercept and engage an enemy of greatly superior strength, sir. I could only take that one way: that my group was expendable.

Admiral Kimmel: I doubt if a court of inquiry will accept that. Captain, you're about to be caught in a vacuum between a peacetime Navy and a wartime Navy. Six months from now, they'll be making admirals out of captains who exhibit some guts. But right now, they're only reacting to the Pearl Harbor disaster, and punishment is order-of-the-day. Of course, you don't have to abide by what a court of inquiry decides. You can ask for general court-martial, get yourself a couple of crack sea lawyers, and make a fight of it.

Captain Torrey: I wouldn't care to do that, sir.

Admiral Kimmel: Why not?

Captain Torrey: Second-generation Navy, Admiral.

Admiral Kimmel: I see. I don't plan to ask for court-martial either, Captain, and I've lost a fleet. So I expect we'll both just take what they give us, and trust it will be a useful job somewhere.

Captain Torrey: Yes, sir.

Admiral Kimmel: Good luck.

Captain Torrey: Good luck to you, sir.