Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley (29 April 1908 – 28 October 2000) was an officer in the U.S. Navy and is the author of three books and numerous articles on the history of U.S. Navy activities in the Pacific, China, and the Soviet Union. Early life Admiral Tolley was born in Manila in, while his father, Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Kemp Tolley, was serving there in the U.S. Army, Kemp Tolley was a 1929 graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he was a member of Phi Alpha Theta. Early career During the 1930s, Tolley served aboard battleships, cruisers and a submarine tender. He also served on the exotic China station, becoming executive officer of the river gunboat USS Tutuila on the upper Yangtze River. Tolley had a natural aptitude for languages and was fluent in Russian, German, French and Spanish. World War II Tolley, then a lieutenant, left Hankou, China on 27 November 1941 aboard . The gunboat sailed down the Yangtze River to Shanghai, where Tolley boarded , bound for Manila, Philippines. On 5 December 1941 Tolley was given command of the sailing schooner Lanikai, which had been acquired by the Navy from a private owner, and given orders to sail in waters off the Philippines and report any sightings of Japanese warships. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor before Tolley could embark on this mission and the Lanikai was assigned to the Inshore Patrol. Lanikai was detached on 26 December 1941 and ordered to attempt to escape to friendly waters. This was the start of a two-month odyssey during which Lanikai sailed from Manila in the Philippine Islands, to Surabaya on Java in the then Netherlands East Indies. Lanikai participated briefly in the doomed defense of Java and was strafed by Japanese aircraft on at least one occasion. Just prior to the fall of Java, Tolley took Lanikai to Tjilatjap on the south coast of Java where she evacuated allied stragglers. Lanikai departed Java 26 February 1942 just prior to the Dutch surrender and arrived at Fremantle, Australia on 18 March 1942. After suitable recovery and refitting Lanikai was engaged in patrol work along the northern coast of Western Australia until April 27, 1942. In August 1942, the Lanikai was turned over to the Royal Australian Navy. Tolley was then reassigned as an assistant naval attaché in the Soviet Union. There, he met Vlada Gritzenko, whom he