Ships
- USS Amsterdam (CL-101) Captain from August 1946 · Relieved on 30 June 1947
Archibald Emil Uehlinger had the light cruiser Amsterdam (CL-101) from August 1946 until she was decommissioned on 30 June 1947. The war was already over. He came to her from ordnance duty, including the instrumentation work for the Crossroads tests at Bikini, and he left her for the Bureau of Ordnance. He retired a rear admiral in 1952.
He was born in Kalispell, Montana, on 16 July 1898, the son of John Emil Uehlinger and Elizabeth Kirk Uehlinger. The Navy Department Library biography says he attended Flaghead County High School. That is the spelling on the page.
He entered the Naval Academy on 2 July 1918, appointed from Montana, and was graduated and commissioned ensign on 2 June 1922. NavSource lists him in the class of 1922. After graduation he joined Chaumont for passage to the Pacific and served as a junior officer in Farragut until April 1924. For the next four years the biography assigns him to Zellin, which it calls a destroyer of Division One, Battle Fleet. The page prints "Zellin" and gives no hull number. He then studied ordnance engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School at Annapolis and at the Navy Yard, Washington.
In the summer of 1931 he had brief duty under instruction in Nevada. On 31 August 1931 he joined Oklahoma. In June 1934 he went to the Bureau of Ordnance. In July and August 1936 he helped fit out Cushing at the Puget Sound Navy Yard and was her executive officer from her commissioning on 28 August 1936 until October 1937. From November 1937 until May 1939 he served in the repair ship Medusa, then returned to the Bureau of Ordnance and was still there when the United States entered the war. He was promoted to captain with date of rank 21 June 1942. He married Maran H. Clark of Portland, Oregon, at Coronado, California, on 5 February 1927.
In January 1942 he was ordered to the fitting out of South Dakota. From her commissioning on 20 March 1942 until May 1943 he served in that battleship, first as gunnery officer and later as executive officer. The Navy Department Library biography awards him the Silver Star as executive officer for the night of 14–15 November 1942 off Savo Island, and it calls him "then Captain" in the sentence that introduces the medal. The citation it quotes, and the Hall of Valor copy of the same award, both style him Commander. The station he was in was hit by five enemy shells. Steam lines ruptured and fires started. He stayed at the station, and the citation says his example kept it manned. Hall of Valor gives the action as the Solomon Islands on the night of 14–15 November 1942 and the ship as South Dakota (BB-57).
He fitted out General G. O. Squier (AP-130) at Puget Sound and commanded her from her commissioning in October 1943 until April 1944. For the last sixteen months of the war he was ordnance planning officer in the Industrial Department at the Puget Sound Navy Yard. The Secretary of the Navy commended him for that work, including a small change to battleship turret controls that increased reliability and rate of fire. He remained at the yard as ordnance officer under orders of 23 January 1946, and in March he reported for temporary duty in the Bureau of Ordnance. A second letter of commendation, a star on the Commendation Ribbon, covers his charge of the Bureau of Ordnance Instrumentation Group from 10 April to 26 August 1946, the instrument work for Operation Crossroads at Bikini.
In August 1946 he was ordered to command Amsterdam. NavSource dates that command from August 1946 through 30 June 1947, the day DANFS decommissions the cruiser at San Francisco. The library biography says that in April 1947 he had orders back to the Bureau of Ordnance. The command lines follow NavSource and keep him in the ship until the decommissioning. Two years after the return to the bureau he became officer in charge of the naval unit at White Sands Proving Ground, Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Viking rockets were built and launched for the Naval Research Laboratory. From 8 October 1951 he commanded the Naval Ordnance Missile Test Facility there. He was transferred to the retired list on 30 June 1952 and advanced to rear admiral on the basis of a combat citation.
The library biography lists the Silver Star, the Commendation Ribbon with star, the American Defense Service Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with operation stars, the American Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. He died on 10 July 1981 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Hall of Valor gives the same birth and death dates and says he retired as a rear admiral.