Ships
- USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) Captain from 13 June 1946 · Relieved on 28 May 1947
Rutledge Barker Tompkins had Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) from 13 June 1946 until 28 May 1947. The fighting was over. He had her for Navy Day at New Orleans, refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, and the goodwill cruise to England and Norway. Before the war he had commanded a destroyer. In 1944, as a captain, he was chief of staff for a task force at the invasion of southern France.
Uboat.net gives a birth date of 27 September 1901 and does not give a place. The same page misspells his name. Nothing fetched names his parents.
NavSource's commanding-officer list for Henley (DD-391) names LCDR Rutledge Barker Tompkins, United States Naval Academy class of 1921-A, from 23 May 1938 to 14 January 1941. Uboat.net's rank line, under the misspelled name, makes him a lieutenant commander, a commander from 1 July 1941, and a temporary captain from 20 June 1942. No Lucky Bag page was fetched.
Hall of Valor records a Legion of Merit for Captain Rutledge B. Tompkins, home of record Washington, D.C., as chief of staff to the commander of a task force before and during the invasion of southern France in August 1944. The entry is a synopsis. It says the citation is needed and points to Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 370, December 1947. It does not mention Wilkes-Barre. NavSource gives him the cruiser, as captain, from 13 June 1946 to 28 May 1947. DANFS does not name him. He was relieved by Captain Edward Randolph Gardner.
No death date, no retirement rank, and no later duty were in the pages fetched. NavSource's final-rank column for the cruiser is blank.