Three served as
Chiefs of Naval
Operations.
The Navy's Fleet Admirals were:
William Daniel
Leahy
William Daniel
Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa, on May 6,1875. His father, Michael
Leahy, a lawyer, had been Captain of Wisconsin Infantry
Volunteers
during the Civil War.
Young Leahy originally hoped to attend West
Point, but there were no appointments
available. When he completed high
school in Ashland, Wisc., in 1893, he was able to win
an appointment to
the Naval Academy. He graduated in 1897, 15th in a class of 47.
Midshipman Leahy was assigned to USS Oregon, then in
the
Pacific. He was in that
battleship when she made her famous dash
around the horn in the Spring of 1898 to
participate in the battle of Santiago on July 3.
Having completed the two years' sea duty -- then required by
law -- he
was commissioned
Ensign on 01 July 1899. At that time, he was on
the Asiatic Station, where, during the
Philippine
Insurrection and the Boxer uprising in China, he served in USS
Castine, USS
Glacier and commanded the gunboat USS
Mariveles. He returned to the United States in
1902, and for
the next five years did duty in USS
Tacoma and USS Boston which was
stationed in Panama during
the early period of construction of the canal.
His first shore cruise was at the Naval Academy. Beginning
in 1907, he
served as
instructor in the Department of
Physics and Chemistry for two years. He went to sea in
1909 and served as navigator of the armed cruiser USS
California
in the& Pacific Fleet.
During the American Occupation of Nicaragua in 1912, he was
Chief of
Staff to the
Commander Naval Forces there.
Late in 1912, he came ashore in Washington as Assistant
Director of
Gunnery Exercises
and Engineering Competitions. In 1913, he was
assigned to the Bureau of Navigation as a
detail
officer where he served until 1915. At that time, he took
command of the dispatch
gunboat USS Dolphin, and established a
very close friendship with the then-Assistant
Secretary of the Navy
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who cruised with him on the ship. He was
in that
assignment in early 1917
in West Indian waters and had additional duty as Senior
Aide on the
Staff of Commander Squadron Three of the Patrol Force Atlantic Fleet.
He served for almost a year as the Executive Officer of USS
Nevada and in April 1918
went to command USS
Princess Matotika, formerly Princess Alice,
transporting troops
to France.
After a short cruise in that command, he came ashore in 1918
and served
for three years
as director of Gunnery Exercises and
Engineering
Competition in the Navy Department,
and as senior member of the Fire
Control Board. In 1921, he went to sea
in command of
USS St. Louis,
flagship of the Naval Detachment
in Turkish waters during the war between
Turkey
and Greece. At the end
of that war, he was given command of Mine
One, Squadron and in 1922
further additional duty as
commander, Control Force.
When he returned to the U.S. and from
1923 to 1926, he
served as
Director In 1927,
Officer Personnel in the Bureau of
Navigation, and then had one year in of command of
the
battleship USS New Mexico. In 1927, he reached flag rank
and became Chief of the
Bureau of Ordnance. After almost four
years, he
went to sea in 1931 as Commander
Destroyers Scouting Force.
In 1933, he came ashore in Washington
as Chief of the Bureau
of
Navigation for two
years, when he went to sea as a vice
admiral, and
Commander Battleships Battle Force.
In 1936, he hoisted his four-star
flag in USS California and Commander in Chief
Battle
Force.
He was appointed Chief of Naval
Operations, took the oath of
office in
January 1937 to
serve until August 1939
when he was placed on the retired list. On that occasion,
President
Roosevelt said "Bill, if we have a war, you're going to be right back
here helping
me run it.
Immediately following his retirement,
Admiral Leahy was
assigned the
duties of Governor
of Puerto Rico in September 1939. He
served in that
capacity until November 1940 when
he was
appointed U.S. Ambassador to France where he served
from January 1941 until recalled in May 1942.
In July of that year, he was called
back to active duty as
Chief of
Staff to the
Commander in Chief, U.S. Army and
Navy, the President of
the United States. As such,
he presided over the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and, when our country was host, over the
combined
Chiefs. In December 1944, he accepted the appointment and was confirmed
as
the newly
created rank of Fleet
Admiral.
On 25 March
1949, the President
accepted his resignation
from that
assignment. He
continued on
duty in an advisory
capacity in the office
of the Secreatry of the Navy, and
served as
President of the Naval Historical foundation.
He died on 20
July 1959.
PROMOTIONS
Graduated from
the Naval Academy - Class of 1897
Ensign - 01 July 1899
Lieutenant (junior grade) - 01 July 1902
Lieutenant - 31 Dec. 1903
Lieutenant Commander - 15 Sept. 1909
Commander - 29 Aug. 1916
Captain - 01 July 1918
Rear Admiral - 14 Oct. 1927
Vice Admiral - 13 July 1935
Admiral - 02 Jan. 1937
Fleet Admiral - 15 Dec. 1944
DECORATIONS and
AWARDS
Navy Cross
Distinguished Service Medal with two gold stars
Sampson Medal
Spanish Campaign Medal
Philippine Campaign Medal
Nicaraguan Campaign Medal (1912)
Mexican Service Medal
Dominican Campaign Medal
World War I Victory Medal with
"Overseas" clasp
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Ernest Joseph
King
Ernest Joseph King was born in Lorain, Ohio, on November
23,1878. As a young boy he
read an article in the Youth's
Companion about the Naval Academy which stimulated his
interest towards a Navy career.
Upon graduating from Lorain High School in 1897, he
was appointed to the Naval Academy by Representative Kerr of
the Fourteenth District of
Ohio. When he left home, his father, a railway mechanic,
gave him a round-trip railway
pass in case he might change his mind. He never used the
return portion, although he kept
it for many years.
In the Summer of 1898, during the Spanish American War, King
served as a Naval Cadet
in the USS San Francisco, His
assignments during his first sea cruise included service in
USS Eagle surveying Cienfriegas, Cuba, in USS
Cincinnati, a protected cruiser in the
Asiatic Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War,
in USS Illinois, flagship of the European
Squadron, and USS
Alabama, flagship of the second
Division of the Atlantic Fleet.
Flagship of the Northern Patrol Squadron, for
which he received his
first decoration, the
Sampson Medal. He graduated with distinction
in the Class of 1901, and served the two
years at sea -- then required by law -- before
being commissioned Ensign on June 7, 1903.
His first shore duty came in 1906 when he went to the Naval
Academy as an instructor in
Ordnance and Gunnery for two years,
followed by one year on the Executive Staff.
Officers who were midshipmen at that time still
remember him as a strict but fair duty
officer.
There followed another sea cruise of three years beginning
as Aide on the Staff of
Commander Battleship Division Two, Atlantic
Fleet in USS Minnesota, one year as
Engineer Officer of USS New Hampshire
and one year on the Staff of the Commander in
Chief Atlantic Fleet in USS Connecticut.
His next shore cruise
started in 1912 in command of the Engineering Experimental Station
command of USS
Cassin, then as aide to Commander Torpedo Flotilla Atlantic Fleet,
Commander Sixth
Division of the Flotilla. In 1916 he went to the staff of Admiral H. T.
Mayo on which he
served during WWI while the Admiral was Commander in Chief,
Atlantic Fleet.
In 1919,
Admiral King, then a Captain, became head of the Postgraduate
School at the
Naval Academy. Following that tour of duty,
he commanded USS
Bridge for a short
period. In
July 1922, he commenced a series of
assignments which placed him in intimate
contact with submarine
operations when he was assigned to duty on
the staff of
Commander Submarine Flotillas,
Atlantic Fleet, and as Commander Submarine Division
Eleven. In 1923
he took command of the Submarine Base at New London with additional
duty as Naval
Inspector of Ordnance in Charge of the Mine Depot there. It was during
this period
in September 1925 that he was
in charge of the salvage of USS S-51
which was sunk off Block Island.
Having
had sea duty in destroyers, submarines and
battleships, Captain King now began his
career in Naval
Aviation which was then
taking its place in the Fleet. In 1926 he took
command of the
aircraft tender USS Wright with additional
duties as Senior Aide on the
Staff of
Commander Air Squadrons, Atlantic Fleet, In January
of 1927, he reported to the
Naval Air
Station, Pensacola for flight training and was
designated naval aviator 3368 in
May of that year. He rejoined Wright on completion
of this training. When USS S-4 was
sunk in December of
that year off Provincetown, however, he was again assigned to
command of her salvage
operations.
Upon completion he returned to his command of the Wright,
and had a short cruise as
Commander Aircraft Squadrons, Scouting Fleet, until 1928,
when he went ashore as
Assistant Chief of the Bureau of
Aeronautics. In 1929 he assumed command of the
Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia. In
June of 1930 he went to sea in command of
USS Lexington for a two year cruise in
that ship. He then had a year in the senior officers'
course at the Naval War College. In 1933, with the rank of
Rear Admiral, he became the
Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics until 1936. During the
next five years, except for the
year 1940 on the General Board he commanded Aircraft Base
Force, Aircraft Scouting
Force, and as a Vice Admiral in 1938, Aircraft Battle Force.
In February 1941, he was
given the rank of Admiral as Commander in
Chief, Atlantic Fleet and on 30 December of
that year he became Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet. In March
1942, the President by
Executive Order, combined the office of
Commander in Chief and the Chief of Naval
Operations, and Admiral King
assumed those combined duties on 18 March, when he
relieved Admiral Stark as Chief of
Naval Operations, the first and only officer to hold
such a assignment. On 17
December 1944 he was advanced to the newly created rank
of Fleet Admiral.
In 1945, when the position of Commander in Chief, U. S.
Fleet ceased to exist, as an office
established by the President pursuant to Executive Order
99635, Admiral King became
Chief of Naval Operations in October of that year. In
December he was relieved by Fleet
Admiral Nimitz. From that time he served in an Advisory
Capacity in the office
of the Secretary of the Navy, and as President of the
Naval Historical Foundation.
He died at the Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, New Hampshire on
25 June 1956.
PROMOTIONS
Graduated from the Naval Academy - Class of 1901
Ensign - June 7, 1903 Lieutenant (junior grade) - June 7,
1906
Lieutenant - June 7, 1906
Lieutenant Commander - July 1, 1913
Commander - July 1, 1917
Captain - September 21, 1918
Rear Admiral - November 1, 1933
Vice Admiral - January 29,1938
Admiral- February 1, 1941
Fleet Admiral - December 17,1944
DECORATIONS AND AWARDS
Navy Cross
Distinguished Service Medal with two gold stars
Spanish Campaign Medal
Sampson Medal
Mexican Service Medal
Victory Medal, Atlantic Fleet Clasp
American Defense Service Medal, with bronze "A"
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Chester
William Nimitz
Chester William Nimitz was born on 24
February 1885, near a quaint hotel in
Fredericksburg, Texas built
by his grandfather, Charles Nimitz, a retired sea captain.
Young Chester, however, had his sights set on an Army career
and while a student at
Tivy High School, Kerrville, Texas, he tried for an
appointment to West Point. When
none was available, he took a competitive
examination
for Annapolis and was selected
and appointed from the Twelfth Congressional District of
Texas in 1901.
He left high school to enter the Naval Academy Class of
1905. It was many years later,
after he had become a Fleet Admiral that he
actually was awarded his high school
diploma. At the Academy Nimitz was an excellent student,
especially in mathematics and
graduated with distinction -- seventh in
a class of 114. He was an athlete and stroked the
crew in his first class year.The
Naval Academy's yearbook, "Lucky Bag", described him
as a man "of cheerful yesterdays and confident tomorrows."
After
graduation he joined
USS Ohio in San Francisco
and cruised in her to the Far East. On 31 January 1907, after
the two years' sea duty then required by law, he was
commissioned Ensign, and took
command of the gunboat USS Panay. He then commanded USS
Decatur and was court
martialed for grounding
her, an obstacle in his career which he overcame.
He returned to the U. S. in 1907 and was ordered to duty
under instruction in submarines,
the branch of the service in which he spent a
large part of his sea duty. His first submarine
was USS Plunger (A-1). He successively commanded USS
Snapper, USS Narwal and
USS Skipjack until 1912. On 20 March of that year,
Nimitz, then a Lieutenant, and
commanding officer of the submarine E-1(formerly Skipjack),was
awarded the Silver
Lifesaving Medal by the Treasury
Department for
his heroic action in saving W.J. Walsh,
Fireman second class, USN, from
drowning. A strong tide was running and Walsh, who
could not swim, was rapidly being swept away from his ship.
Lieutenant Nimitz dove in
the water and kept Walsh afloat
until both were picked up by a small boat.
He had one year in command of the Atlantic Submarine
Flotilla before coming ashore in
1913 for duty in connection with building the
diesel engines for the tanker USS Maumee
at Groton, Conn. In that same year, he
was sent to Germany and Belgium to study
engines at their Diesel Plants. With
that experience he
subsequently served as Executive
Officer and Engineering Officer of the
Maumee until 1917 when he was assigned as Aide
and Chief of Staff to COMSUBLANT. He served in that billet
during World War I.
In September 1918 he came ashore to duty in the office of
the Chief of Naval Operations
and was a member of the Board of
Submarine Design. His first sea duty in big ships came
in 1919 when he had one year's duty as
Executive Officer of the battleship USS South
Carolina After that he continued his duty in
submarines in Pearl Harbor as Commanding
Officer USS
Chicago and COMSUBDIV Fourteen.
In 1922 he was assigned as a student at the Naval War
College, and upon graduation went
as Chief of Staff to Commander
Battle Forces and later Commander in Chief,U.S. Fleet
(Admiral S. S. Robinson).
In the meantime, the ROTC program had been initiated and in
1926 he became the first
Professor of Naval Science and Tactics for the
Unit at the University of California at
Berkley. Throughout the remainder of
his life he retained a close association with the
University. After three years in that
assignment, in 1929, he again had sea duty in the
submarine service as Commander Submarine Division Twenty for
two years and then went
ashore to command USS Rigel and decommissioned
destroyers at the base in San Diego. In
1933 he was assigned to his first large ship command, the
heavy cruiser USS Augusta
which served mostly as flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. Coming
ashore in 1935 he served three
years as Assistant Chief of the
Bureau of Navigation. His next sea command was in flag
rank as Commander Cruiser Division Two and then as Commander
Battle Division One
until 1939, when he was appointed as Chief of the Bureau of
Navigation for four years. In
December 1941, however, he was designated as Commander in
Chief, Pacific Fleet and
Pacific Ocean Areas, where he served throughout the
war. On 19 December 1944, he was
advanced to the newly created rank of Fleet Admiral, and on
2 September 1945, was the
United States signatory to the surrender
terms aboard the battleship USS Missouri in
Tokyo Bay.
He hauled down his flag at Pearl Harbor on 26 Nov. 1945, and
on 15 December relieved
Fleet Admiral E.J. King as Chief of Naval
Operations for a term of two years. On 01
January 1948, he reported as special
Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy in the
Western Sea Frontier. In March of
1949, he was nominated as Plebiscite Administrator
for Kashmir under the United Nations.
When that did not materialize he asked to be
relieved and accepted an
assignment as a roving goodwill ambassador of the United
to explain to the public the major issues
confronting the U.N. In 1951, President
appointed him as Chairman of the nine-man commission on
International Security and
Industrial Rights. This
commission never got underway because Congress never passed
appropriate legislation.
Thereafter, he took an active interest in San Francisco
community affairs, in addition to
his continued active participation in
affairs of concern to the Navy and the country. he
was an honorary vice president and
later honorary president of the Naval Historical
Foundation. He served for eight years as a regent of the
University of California and did
much to restore goodwill with Japan by raising funds to
restore the battleship Mikasa,
Admiral Togo's flagship at Tsushima in 1905.
He died on 20 February 1966.
PROMOTIONS
Graduated from the Naval Academy - Class of 1905
Ensign - 07 Jan. 1907
Lieutenant (junior grade) - 31 Jan. 1910
Lieutenant - 31 Jan. 1910
Lieutenant Commander - 29 Aug. 1916
Commander - 8 March 1918
Captain - 02 June 1927
Rear Admiral - 23 June 1938
Vice Admiral - Not held - promoted directly to Admiral
Admiral - 31 Dec. 1941
Fleet Admiral - 19 Dec. 1944
DECORATIONS and AWARDS
Distinguished Service Medal with two gold stars
Army Distinguished Service Medal
Silver Lifesaving Medal
Victory Medal with Escort Clasp
American Defense Service Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal
William Frederick
Halsey, Jr.
William Frederick Halsey, Jr., was born in Elizabeth, New
Jersey, on October 30,1882,
the son of the late Captain William F.
Halsey, U.S. Navy. As a Navy junior, he made the
usual round of schools prior to his
appointment to the Naval Academy. President McKinley
gave him an appointment
in 1900.
While at the Naval Academy he distinguished himself in class
committees and athletics,
but not in scholarship. He was a
member of the "Lucky Bag" yearbook staff, won his
letter in football as a fullback
and was president of the Athletic Association. As a
First Classman, he had his
name engraved on the Thompson Trophy Cup as the
Midshipman who had done the
most during the year for the promotion of athletics.
Upon graduation in February 1904, he was assigned to USS
Missouri and later transferred
to USS Don Juan de Austria in
which he was commissioned an Ensign after having
completed the two years at sea -- then required by law. In
1907, he joined USS Kansas and made the famous
World Cruise of the Fleet in that battle ship.
For the
next almost 25 years practically all his sea duty
with the Fleet was in destroyers,
starting in 1909 with command of USS
DuPont (TB-7 commissioned in 1897), USS
Lamson,
USS FlusserUSS Jarvis. In 1915 he went ashore for
two years of duty in the
Executive Department at the Naval Academy.
During WWI he served in the Queenstown Destroyer Force in
command of USS Benham
USS Shaw. From 1918 to 1921
he continued his destroyer service in command of
USS Yarnell, USS
Chauncey, USS John Francis Burnes and Destroyer Division
Thirty-two. In October of 1920 he assumed command of USS
Wickes and of Destroyer
Division Fifteen. At that time a destroyer division
commander also commanded the division
flagship. Another shore cruise sent him to
duty in the Office of Naval Intelligence, in
Washington, -- which was his only duty
assignment in that city. In October 1922, he was
ordered as Naval Attache at the American
Embassy in Berlin, Germany. One year later,
he was given additional duty as
Naval Attache at the American Embassies in Christiana,
Norway; Copenhagen,
Denmark; and Stockholm, Sweden.
On completion of that cruise he returned to sea duty, again
in the destroyers in European
waters, in command of USS DaleUSS
Osborne. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1927, he
served one year as Executive Officer of the battleship USS
Wyoming -- and then for three
years in command of USS Reina Mercedes, station ship
at the Naval Academy. He
continued his destroyer duty on his next
two-years at cruise starting in 1930 as Commander
Destroyer Division Three of the Scouting
Force. In 1932 he went as a student to
the Naval War College.
Then in 1934, he embarked on his aviation career when he
reported to the Naval Air
Station, Pensacola for flight training. He
was designated a Naval Aviator on 15 May 1935,
and went in command of the carrier USS Saratoga for
two years, followed by one year in
command of the Naval Air Station, Pensacola. In 1938, when
he reached flag rank, he held
successive commands of Carrier Division Two in USS
Yorktown and Carrier Division One
in Saratoga. In 1940, he became
Commander Aircraft Battle Force with the rank of Vice
Admiral. He was in USS Enterprise in
that command when World War II broke out. In
April 1942 he was designated Commander Task
Force Sixteen, in EnterpriseUSS Hornet to
within 800 miles of Tokyo to launch
the Army planes for the initial bombing of Japan.
In October l942 he was made Commander South Pacific Forces
and South Pacific Area.
With the rank of Admiral, and for the next 18
months he was in command of that area
during the offensive
operations of the U.S. Forces. In June 1944 he
assumed command
of the Third Fleet, and was
designated Commander Western Pacific Task Forces. As
such, he operated successfully against the
Japanese in the Palaies, Philippines, Formosa,
Okinawa and South China Sea. Subsequent to the Okinawa
campaign in July 1945, his
forces struck at Tokyo and the Japanese
mainland. The last attack of his forces was on
13 August 1945. Admiral Halsey's flag was flying on USS
Missouri on 2 September in
Tokyo Bay when the formal Japanese surrender was signed
onboard.
Immediately thereafter, 54 ships of the Third Fleet, with
his four-star flag in USS South
Dakota, returned to the United States for
annual Navy Day Celebrations in San Francisco
on 27 October 1945. He
hauled down his flag in November of
that year and was assigned
special duty in the
office of the Secretary of the Navy. On
December 11,1945, he took the
oath as Fleet Admiral
becoming the fourth and last officer
to hold the rank.
Later, Fleet Admiral
Halsey made a goodwill flying trip
through Central and South
America covering
nearly 28,000 miles, and 11
nations. He was relieved of active duty in
December 1946, and
upon his own request
transferred to the retired list on 1 March 1947.
Upon retirement, he joined the
board of two subsidiaries of the International Telephone
and Telegraph Company and served until 1957. He was active
in an unsuccessful effort to
preserve the USS Enterprise as a national shrine,
and was an elected Honorary Vice
President of the Naval Historical Foundation.
He died on 16 August
1959 at Fishers Island Country Club.
PROMOTIONS
Graduated from Naval
Academy - Class of 1904
Ensign - February 2,
1906
Lieutenant (junior
grade) - February 2, 1909
Lieutenant - February
2, 1909
Lieutenant Commander -
August 29, 1916
Commander - February
1, 1918
Captain - February 10,
1927
Rear Admiral - March
1, 1938
Vice Admiral - June
13, 1940
Admiral - November 18,
1942
DECORATIONS AND AWARDS
Navy Cross
Distinguished Service
Medal with three gold stars
Army Distinguished
Service Medal
Presidential Unit
Citation
Mexican Service Medal
Victory Medal,
Destroyer Clasp
American Defense
Service Medal with Fleet Clasp and to
escort the carrier
Asiatic-Pacific
Campaign Medal
World War II Victory
Medal
National Defense
Service Medal
Philippine Liberation
Medal
