Ships
- USS Concord (CL-10) Captain from 16 December 1943 · Relieved on 10 October 1944
Oberlin Carter Laird commanded the light cruiser Concord (CL-10) from 16 December 1943 to 10 October 1944. In those months she finished repairs at Balboa, joined the Northern Pacific Force at Adak, and took part in bombardments of the Kurils. He received the Legion of Merit for two of those bombardments. He retired a rear admiral.
He was born on 8 November 1898 in Savannah, Georgia. Find a Grave gives his full name as Oberlin Montgomery Carter Ambrose Laird and the nickname Obie.
The Hall of Valor states that he was graduated from the Naval Academy with the class of 1920. The memorial biography says he was graduated in 1919, having already served in two ships during the First World War, which is the early graduation that class was put through. The same memorial says he served with the Atlantic Fleet in the Black Sea, attended submarine school, and was assigned to the base at Coco Solo in Panama. In 1927 the Navy sent him to Santander, Spain, to study Spanish. He later taught Spanish at the Naval Academy. The memorial also places him, as a lieutenant commander, in Lexington and Honolulu, and as executive officer of the submarine tender Holland and of Colorado. Uboat.net lists a command of Holland (AS-3) in the middle and late months of 1940, while he was a commander.
NavSource dates his command of Concord from 16 December 1943 to 10 October 1944. DANFS has the ship repaired by March 1944, joining the Northern Pacific Force at Adak on 2 April, and serving at the start of that duty as flagship of Task Force 94. She joined bombardments of the Kurils that continued, at intervals, to the end of the war. The Hall of Valor citation synopsis awards him the Legion of Merit, as a captain, for service as commanding officer of a United States cruiser in the Kuril Islands on 13 June 1944 and at Paramushiro on 26 June 1944. The memorial says the bombardments were made at night. Uboat.net dates his temporary captain's rank to 18 June 1942.
After the war he was chief of the U.S. Naval Mission to Chile. He also served as translator when the president of Venezuela, Rómulo Gallegos, met President Truman in 1948. He retired in 1949 as a rear admiral. He and his wife, Esther Corliss Jennings Laird, later lived in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He died on 8 July 1972 in Newport, Rhode Island.