 The Board instead recommended commissioning a number of reserve naval aviators and transferring them to the regular line of the Navy, which was the approach eventually adopted by the Navy Department.In late 1940, King left the General Board to become commander-in-chief of the Atlantic Fleet.A year later, in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, King was elevated to Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, and promptly forced Chief of Naval Operations Harold R. Stark to release his assistant, Rear Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, to succeed King in command of the Atlantic Fleet.