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Rear Adm. Cecil H. Coggins, MD ’30, MC, USN

Adventurer Extraordinaire and Counterespionage Agent

In 1921, 19-year-old Cecil Coggins was working as a merchant mariner when he jumped ship in Salonika, Greece.

The daring young man soon found himself entangled in the Greco-Turkish War, and he was imprisoned as a spy. Yet about a year later, he was overseeing a banana plantation in Honduras. He worked his way back to the U.S., seeking a formal education to inform his insatiable curiosity and wanderlust, and matriculated at the University of Missouri. Medicine was in his genes, and he went on to medical school at Jefferson, graduating in 1930.

All this adventure and experience, and he wasn’t even 30.

Coggins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1902. The son of a preacher and a schoolteacher, his forefathers included John Coggins, the first colonial physician to practice south of Philadelphia. After Jefferson, Coggins joined the Navy and settled into an obstetrics and gynecology residency at the Naval Dispensary in Long Beach, California.

A keen observer and natural skeptic, he began monitoring suspicious radio transmissions between the large Japanese tuna fleet off the coast of California during his downtime between delivering babies and hospital calls. Over many months, he meticulously organized his data and presented it to the staff of the 11th Naval District. As Japan sought hegemony in the Pacific and with war on the horizon, Coggins’ insights were of particular value to those monitoring the potential for war with Japan — namely, the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Now a lieutenant, Coggins was subsequently recruited by the ONI to assist in its intelligence-gathering operations.

Coggins during his time with the U.S. Naval Group China

In 1940, Coggins relocated to Hawaii and was placed in charge of counterespionage, with a direct report to then Rear Adm. Chester Nimitz. During the following year, Coggins recruited and trained over 100 counterespionage agents. Many were Nisei (those of Japanese ancestry who were born in the territory of Hawaii or on the mainland, as contrasted with the Issei, those who were born in Japan, immigrated to Hawaii, and often maintained dual citizenship). Coggins’ training and investigation techniques were codified and became the first training manual for the ONI.

There was unease in the Hawaiian Islands both before the attack on Pearl Harbor and in the months thereafter, when martial law was declared. Anti-Japanese sentiment was at a fever pitch, and the U.S. government questioned their loyalty. There were calls for the relocation or internment of most of those with Japanese ancestry. Out of a Hawaiian population of 423,000, 158,000 were of Japanese ancestry (one-third with dual Japanese and American citizenship). The Nisei were torn between their allegiance to the land of their fathers and their Shinto beliefs, and to their newfound culture and language.

Looming in the background were events on the U.S. mainland. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, resulting in the removal of 122,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to “relocation centers.” (Roosevelt’s order was upheld in 1944 in the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v. United States, a case that historians later viewed as an egregious abuse of executive and judicial power.)

Fear was now a grim reality for the Nisei. However, there were practical economic factors that complicated the issue of the internment of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii. Back then, Hawaii’s large sugar and pineapple plantations were a major part of the economy. Over 80% of the world’s pineapples came from Hawaii, and a majority of the workers on the plantations were of Japanese ancestry. The internment of Japanese-Americans would have crippled the Hawaiian economy.

The Nisei found a champion to plead their case and affirm that they were loyal to the U.S. in the unlikely “spymaster of Hawaii,” Cecil Coggins. He helped draft a statement that declared, “To deprive us (Nisei) of the sacred rights to bear arms is contrary to the principles upon which American democracy is founded.”

Rear Admiral Cecil Coggins, MD

In addition, Coggins brought the plight of the Nisei to a national audience through an article that he penned for Harper’s Magazine in June 1943, titled “The Japanese Americans in Hawaii.” With the petition submitted to the joint military commanders Gen. Delos Emmons and Adm. Nimitz, and with fears mollified, restrictions were loosened.

The Nisei’s 100th and 442nd regiments later fought with distinction in Italy, France, and Germany, and near the end of the war liberated the concentration camp at Dachau. Coggins considered his efforts on behalf of the Nisei as one of the highlights of his naval career.

In 1942, Coggins was assigned to the psychological warfare section at ONI headquarters in Washington, DC. He conducted research and worked on operational projects with Commander Ian Fleming of the Royal Navy Intelligence Department, years before he rose to fame as the author of the James Bond novels.

Restless at his desk job and ever seeking new challenges, Coggins requested an assignment in the field, and was sent to the Far East. In 1943, he served as chief field surgeon for U.S. Naval Group China, known affectionately as the “Rice Paddy Navy.” This top-secret, shadowy outfit collaborated with the nationalist Chinese in Japanese-occupied Western China. They rescued downed Allied aviators and engaged in guerrilla warfare — a small war within a wider war. Their undercover work was described as one of the best-kept secrets of WWII.

While Coggins primarily functioned as a physician, his instincts and interest in intelligence did not wane. He suspected that the Japanese were engaging in biological warfare, and while he sought evidence, he was unable to find confirmation. However, years later, Japan disclosed the existence of its Unit 731, which did conduct lethal experiments on Chinese civilians in the 1930s and ‘40s as it sought to develop chemical and biological weapons.

For his service when his unit was under fire, Coggins was awarded the Bronze Star.

Three rear admirals from the Class of 1930 at their 50th reunion (left to right, Francis J. Braceland, Cecil H. Coggins, and Charles W. Letcher)

After World War II, from 1947 to 1949, he was assigned to the hospital ship USS Repose, where he served as a full-time physician. During subsequent years, he served as chief of atomic, biological, and chemical warfare at NATO headquarters in Paris. After 31 years of service, Coggins retired in 1959 with the rank of rear admiral. In his post-Navy career, he spent seven years as medical chief of civil defense for the state of California.

Coggins died on May 1, 1987, at the age of 85, in Monterey, California. Buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery, he was survived by his wife, Dorothy, and his three sons.

Author's Notes

What is it about a Jefferson education in the late 1920s (and even now) that allows a graduate such as Lt. Coggins to effortlessly transition from postgraduate residency training to being a skilled and highly valued naval intelligence officer

Keen observational skills and data interpretation skills are common to both medicine and naval intelligence. In medicine, such skills frequently lead to an accurate diagnosis, and in the clash of naval armadas, they may give one side a clear advantage. No better example exists than the “miracle” of the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when Cmdr. J.J. Rochefort and his staff broke the Japanese naval code and predicted a battle at Midway Island. The ensuing battle led to a decisive victory for the U.S. Navy that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

An ONI historian lauded Coggins as “a man who is considered one of the most colorful and unique personalities in the history of the Office of Naval Intelligence.” Yet although Coggins left an oral history, his definitive biography was never written.

A number of sources were of value in the writing of this article. “Ghosts of Honolulu,” a recently published book written by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, tells of the spies and counterspies present in Hawaii before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Two articles deserve mention: “Cecil Coggins and the War in the Shadows,” by Eugene Laforet, MD, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on April 25, 1980, and Coggins’ June 1943 article in Harper’s Magazine.

I did not have access to Cecil Coggins’ papers and correspondence; however, five boxes are kept at the Archives Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command.

I owe a special thanks to Fritz Ruccius, former senior vice president for development at Thomas Jefferson University, for his editing skills and encouragement. His idea was the impetus for this article.

James F. Lally, MD ’65, served as a Navy medical officer during the Vietnam War with the Marine Corps’ 3rd Medical Battalion and 9th Marine Regiment.

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