Ships
- USS Concord (CL-10) Captain from 13 July 1942 · Relieved on 16 December 1943
Irving Reynolds Chambers commanded the light cruiser Concord (CL-10) from 13 July 1942 to 16 December 1943. For part of that time Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd was embarked, surveying islands in the southeast Pacific. A gasoline explosion on the cruise killed men of the ship's company, and Chambers was the captain Byrd wrote to about it. Concord was his last sea command.
He was born on 20 December 1893 in Newport, Rhode Island. His father was Captain Washington Irving Chambers, the officer who had charge of the Navy's first aviation work, and his mother was Isabella Reynolds. His father called him Skipper.
He was graduated from the Naval Academy in 1915 and served 31 years. He qualified as a submarine officer. In 1921, as a lieutenant in command of R-6 (SS-83), he was the last man off when the boat sank in San Pedro Bay on 26 September after a torpedo-tube door failed. He stayed in the water to help men who were struggling. Two sailors were killed. A board of inquiry cleared him. The boat was raised on 13 October and went back into service. Uboat.net dates his lieutenant's commission to 1 July 1920 and his lieutenant commander's to 4 June 1926.
He was promoted to commander on 30 June 1936 and to captain on 1 July 1941. NavSource and uboat.net both give him Concord from 13 July 1942 to 16 December 1943. DANFS places the ship in the Southeast Pacific Force in those years, escorting convoys to Bora Bora, exercising in the Canal Zone, and cruising the coast of South America and the islands of the southeast Pacific. Between 5 September and 24 November 1943 she carried Byrd on a survey of islands that might serve national defense and commercial aviation. During the cruise a gasoline explosion killed 22 men, the executive officer among them, and the ship was repaired at Balboa. Byrd wrote to Chambers from Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas, on 7 October 1943, commending the captain and the crew for courage and efficiency after the explosion. The letter, as reproduced with his father's Wikipedia article, speaks of 24 men lost. DANFS says 22.
Uboat.net dates his retirement to 1 December 1946. He died on 24 September 1979 in Palm Beach, Florida, at 85, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His father's Wikipedia article gives the same years, 1893–1979, and says he attained the rank of captain.