private and professional travails coupled with the perception that he had been scapegoated by the political establishment made him a sympathetic figure among his fellow officers. Flag rank Following his acquittal, Knight was promoted to rear admiral in May 1911 (backdated to January 29) and assigned to command the Narragansett Bay Naval Station. He served as commander in chief of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet from 1912 to 1913, interrupted by temporary duty to command a special squadron consisting of the armored cruisers and that was dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean in November 1912 to protect American citizens in Turkey during the Balkan War. As President of the Naval War College from December 15, 1913, to February 16, 1917, Knight was extensively quoted in Hudson Maxim's influential 1915 book Defenseless America, which exhorted America to rearm. Knight aligned himself with naval reformers such as Bradley Fiske and William Sims who agitated for a navy general staff headed by a strong chief of naval operations with authority to command both the line and the bureaus. President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels strongly opposed the idea, and Wilson instructed Daniels to reprimand Knight after he publicly advocated a general staff in a speech in New York City. Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet On May 22, 1917, Knight raised his flag aboard the armored cruiser Brooklyn as commander in chief of the Asiatic Fleet with the temporary rank of admiral. He directed American naval operations during the Allied intervention at Vladivostok during the Russian Civil War, and was chairman of the ten-nation council tasked with preserving order in the Russian Far East. Knight relinquished command on December 7, 1918, and reverted to his permanent rank of rear admiral. He transferred to the retired list on December 16, 1918. Knight Board of Awards Knight was recalled to active duty from March 13, 1919, until June 30, 1920, to serve as Senior Member of the Board of Awards. No medals had been awarded for naval service during World War I prior to the armistice, so on March 6, 1919, Secretary Daniels appointed Knight to head a board to review all recommendations of commanding officers for the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Medal, and Navy Cross, and to submit a uniform list of recommended honors. The board comprised Knight and eight other retired officers, a roster that drew harsh criticism as most