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On February 24, 1885, Chester Nimitz, American admiral who commanded the US Pacific fleet in World War II, was born in Fredericksburg, Texas (d. 1966). From the article:
"Chester William Nimitz | Encyclopedia.com
Chester William Nimitz (1885-1966), American naval officer, commanded the Pacific Fleet during World War II and played a major role in formulating and executing the strategy which led to the defeat of Japan.
Chester Nimitz was born on Feb. 24, 1885, in Fredricksburg, Tex. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1905, seventh in a class of 114. Despite being court-martialed and reprimanded for running aground his second command, the destroyer Decatur, he rose relatively rapidly in the Navy. During World War I he was chief of staff to the commander of the Submarine Division, Atlantic Fleet. Later he was appointed the first professor of naval science at the University of California. During the 1930s he served aboard submarines, cruisers, and battleships. In 1939 Rear Adm. Nimitz was appointed chief of the Bureau of Navigation.
The Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor precipitated a major shake-up in the Navy's command structure. In December 1941 Nimitz was promoted to admiral and made commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. A few months later he was also named commander in chief of Allied forces in the Pacific Ocean area. This title proved somewhat inaccurate as Gen. Douglas MacArthur exercised an independent command over southwestern Pacific operations.
While realizing that the battered American fleet was in no condition to risk a major confrontation in early 1942, Nimitz knew that some offensive action was necessary to restore the Navy's confidence. He authorized a series of fast carrier strikes upon Japanese positions, culminating with Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo. While inflicting only limited damage, these helped maintain morale.
Nimitz's skill as a strategist and his ability to delegate authority produced more concrete results later in 1942 when he directed the Navy's actions in May at the Battle of the Coral Sea, which slowed Japan's advance southward, and in June at the Battle of Midway, where Japan's attack across the central Pacific was permanently halted. The United States next moved to occupy the island of Guadalcanal. When the first months of this operation produced heavy American naval losses, pressures began to build for evacuation. Nimitz, while admitting the gravity of the situation, continued to pour all available aid into the area and in October appointed the popular and aggressive Adm. William Halsey its overall commander. The following month Halsey decisively defeated the Japanese fleet, ensuring victory on Guadalcanal.
In 1943, with new units rapidly joining the fleet, the United States began major Pacific offensives. A dual approach was approved, with a force under Nimitz attacking across the central Pacific, while MacArthur's command moved up from New Guinea. Nimitz played a major role in developing the "leapfrogging" tactic of bypassing strongly held enemy positions and then neutralizing them by aerial attack and naval blockade.
Adm. Nimitz contributed major organizational methods to the Pacific war. He devoted considerable effort to creating forward repair stations and maintenance squadrons, without which the war effort might have been seriously hampered. He also devised the separate fleet staff organizations for his single fleet of fast carriers and their supporting vessels. While one staff commanded operations at sea, the other planned the next assaults. This arrangement provided continuous pressure upon the Japanese, leading them to overestimate American naval strength, and created as well improved command procedures.
In 1944 Nimitz was made a five-star fleet admiral. This gave him rank equal to Gen. MacArthur at a time when distinctions between their areas of command were becoming increasingly vague. Despite previous differences, they worked well together during the final stages of the war. In August 1945 Japan surrendered, and the following month, on behalf of the United States, Adm. Nimitz signed its instrument of surrender.
Following the war Nimitz was appointed chief of naval operations. In this position he dealt effectively with the massive problems of demobilization and successfully defended the Navy's continued control over carrier aviation under the proposed unification of the armed services. In December 1947 he retired and moved to San Francisco. From 1949 he devoted much time to serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. He died in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 1966.
Further Reading
There is no book-length study of Nimitz's career. Many of his ideas on strategy can be gleaned from the volume which he and E. B. Porter coauthored, Sea Power: A Naval History (1961). Probably the best one-volume history of the U.S. Navy's role in World War II is Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two Ocean War (1963). The development and use of naval air power in the Pacific are well set forth in Clarke G. Reynolds, The History and Development of the Fast Carrier Task Forces, 1943-45 (1964), and Joseph James Clark and Clark G. Reynolds, Carrier Admiral (1967).
Additional Sources
Brink, Randall., Nimitz: the man and his wars, New York: D.I. Fine Books/Dutton, 1996.
Driskill, Frank A., Admiral of the hills: Chester W. Nimitz, Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1983.
Potter, E. B. (Elmer Belmont), Nimitz, Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, 1988. □
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Nimitz, Chester
The Oxford Companion to American Military History
© The Oxford Companion to American Military History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000.
Nimitz, Chester (1885–1966), World War II Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.Born in Fredericksburg, Texas, on 24 February 1885, Nimitz graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1905, and served in the Pacific successively in a battleship and as commanding officer of a gunboat and of a destroyer. In 1909, transferred to the Atlantic for submarine duty, he made himself an expert in submarine diesel engines. In 1913, sent by the navy to Germany to perfect his knowledge of such engines, he returned and supervised construction of diesels in a new oiler. In World War I, Nimitz served as engineering aide and chief of staff to the commander of the U.S. Atlantic submarine flotilla.
Nimitz, recognizing his main talent, now shifted the direction of his career from operating machinery to directing people, a new emphasis put severely to the test in 1920 when he oversaw the building of a submarine base at Pearl Harbor. In 1922–23, Commander Nimitz attended the Naval War College. Thereafter, in a series of promotions, he rose in rank and command. In 1933, as captain, he commanded a heavy cruiser. In 1938, as rear admiral, he assumed command of Battleship Division One. The following year he went ashore as a bureau chief with the function of assembling and training officers and enlisted men for naval expansion in the impending World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, following the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, appointed Nimitz commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet and subsequently of the Pacific Ocean Areas, entrusting to his command all American and Allied sea, land, and air forces in the north, central, and south Pacific. From his Pearl Harbor headquarters, Nimitz directed growing American forces in the 1942 carrier battles of the Coral Sea and Midway and in the reconquest of Guadalcanal, victories that brought the southern and eastern advance of the Japanese to a halt and turned the tide of war.
In 1943, forces under Nimitz ousted the Japanese from the Aleutians and collaborated with Gen. Douglas MacArthur's southwest Pacific forces in reconquering the Solomons and eastern New Guinea. In 1944, the two commanders cooperated in a drive to the Philippines, MacArthur by amphibious advances along the New Guinea north coast, Nimitz by conquest of the Gilbert, Marshall, and Mariana islands and the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, sea fights that virtually eliminated the Japanese fleet.
In 1945, Nimitz, wearing the five stars of his new rank of fleet admiral, directed the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa from his advanced headquarters on Guam and ordered the bombings and bombardments of Japan that preceded the Japanese capitulation. On the deck of the battleship Missouri he and General MacArthur signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the United States.
Following the war, Nimitz served two years as chief of naval operations, then settled at Berkeley, California. He limited his public activities to making an occasional speech on behalf of the United Nations and serving as regent of the University of California. His health declining, the navy transferred him to more comfortable quarters on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay. Here he died 20 February 1966.
[See also World War II, U.S. Naval Operations in: The Pacific.]
Bibliography
E. B. Potter , Nimitz, 1976.
E. B. Potter
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"Nimitz, Chester." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. . Encyclopedia.com. 18 Feb. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
"Nimitz, Chester." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. . Encyclopedia.com. (February 18, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester
"Nimitz, Chester." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. . Retrieved February 18, 2019 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester
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Nimitz, Chester William
The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
Copyright The Columbia University Press
Chester William Nimitz (nĬm´Ĭts), 1885–1966, American admiral, b. Fredericksburg, Tex. A graduate of Annapolis, he was chief of staff to the commander of the submarine force of the Atlantic Fleet in World War I. In 1939, he was made chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he succeeded (1941) Husband E. Kimmel as commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz headed the naval fighting forces in the Pacific throughout World War II. In Dec., 1944, he was made fleet admiral (five-star admiral) and a year later succeeded Ernest J. King as chief of naval operations. After he retired (Dec., 1947) from the navy, he headed (1949) the United Nations commission in the dispute over Kashmir.
See E. P. Hoyt, How They Won the War in the Pacific (1970).
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"Nimitz, Chester William." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Retrieved February 18, 2019 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester-william
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Nimitz, Chester William
World Encyclopedia
© World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005.
Nimitz, Chester William (1885–1966) US admiral. He served in submarines during World War I, and commanded the Pacific fleet during World War II, directing operations against the Japanese at Midway and subsequent battles."
"Chester William Nimitz | Encyclopedia.com
Chester William Nimitz (1885-1966), American naval officer, commanded the Pacific Fleet during World War II and played a major role in formulating and executing the strategy which led to the defeat of Japan.
Chester Nimitz was born on Feb. 24, 1885, in Fredricksburg, Tex. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1905, seventh in a class of 114. Despite being court-martialed and reprimanded for running aground his second command, the destroyer Decatur, he rose relatively rapidly in the Navy. During World War I he was chief of staff to the commander of the Submarine Division, Atlantic Fleet. Later he was appointed the first professor of naval science at the University of California. During the 1930s he served aboard submarines, cruisers, and battleships. In 1939 Rear Adm. Nimitz was appointed chief of the Bureau of Navigation.
The Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor precipitated a major shake-up in the Navy's command structure. In December 1941 Nimitz was promoted to admiral and made commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. A few months later he was also named commander in chief of Allied forces in the Pacific Ocean area. This title proved somewhat inaccurate as Gen. Douglas MacArthur exercised an independent command over southwestern Pacific operations.
While realizing that the battered American fleet was in no condition to risk a major confrontation in early 1942, Nimitz knew that some offensive action was necessary to restore the Navy's confidence. He authorized a series of fast carrier strikes upon Japanese positions, culminating with Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo. While inflicting only limited damage, these helped maintain morale.
Nimitz's skill as a strategist and his ability to delegate authority produced more concrete results later in 1942 when he directed the Navy's actions in May at the Battle of the Coral Sea, which slowed Japan's advance southward, and in June at the Battle of Midway, where Japan's attack across the central Pacific was permanently halted. The United States next moved to occupy the island of Guadalcanal. When the first months of this operation produced heavy American naval losses, pressures began to build for evacuation. Nimitz, while admitting the gravity of the situation, continued to pour all available aid into the area and in October appointed the popular and aggressive Adm. William Halsey its overall commander. The following month Halsey decisively defeated the Japanese fleet, ensuring victory on Guadalcanal.
In 1943, with new units rapidly joining the fleet, the United States began major Pacific offensives. A dual approach was approved, with a force under Nimitz attacking across the central Pacific, while MacArthur's command moved up from New Guinea. Nimitz played a major role in developing the "leapfrogging" tactic of bypassing strongly held enemy positions and then neutralizing them by aerial attack and naval blockade.
Adm. Nimitz contributed major organizational methods to the Pacific war. He devoted considerable effort to creating forward repair stations and maintenance squadrons, without which the war effort might have been seriously hampered. He also devised the separate fleet staff organizations for his single fleet of fast carriers and their supporting vessels. While one staff commanded operations at sea, the other planned the next assaults. This arrangement provided continuous pressure upon the Japanese, leading them to overestimate American naval strength, and created as well improved command procedures.
In 1944 Nimitz was made a five-star fleet admiral. This gave him rank equal to Gen. MacArthur at a time when distinctions between their areas of command were becoming increasingly vague. Despite previous differences, they worked well together during the final stages of the war. In August 1945 Japan surrendered, and the following month, on behalf of the United States, Adm. Nimitz signed its instrument of surrender.
Following the war Nimitz was appointed chief of naval operations. In this position he dealt effectively with the massive problems of demobilization and successfully defended the Navy's continued control over carrier aviation under the proposed unification of the armed services. In December 1947 he retired and moved to San Francisco. From 1949 he devoted much time to serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. He died in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 1966.
Further Reading
There is no book-length study of Nimitz's career. Many of his ideas on strategy can be gleaned from the volume which he and E. B. Porter coauthored, Sea Power: A Naval History (1961). Probably the best one-volume history of the U.S. Navy's role in World War II is Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two Ocean War (1963). The development and use of naval air power in the Pacific are well set forth in Clarke G. Reynolds, The History and Development of the Fast Carrier Task Forces, 1943-45 (1964), and Joseph James Clark and Clark G. Reynolds, Carrier Admiral (1967).
Additional Sources
Brink, Randall., Nimitz: the man and his wars, New York: D.I. Fine Books/Dutton, 1996.
Driskill, Frank A., Admiral of the hills: Chester W. Nimitz, Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1983.
Potter, E. B. (Elmer Belmont), Nimitz, Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, 1988. □
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"Chester William Nimitz." Encyclopedia of World Biography. . Encyclopedia.com. (February 18, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chester-william-nimitz
"Chester William Nimitz." Encyclopedia of World Biography. . Retrieved February 18, 2019 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chester-william-nimitz
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Nimitz, Chester
The Oxford Companion to American Military History
© The Oxford Companion to American Military History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000.
Nimitz, Chester (1885–1966), World War II Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.Born in Fredericksburg, Texas, on 24 February 1885, Nimitz graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1905, and served in the Pacific successively in a battleship and as commanding officer of a gunboat and of a destroyer. In 1909, transferred to the Atlantic for submarine duty, he made himself an expert in submarine diesel engines. In 1913, sent by the navy to Germany to perfect his knowledge of such engines, he returned and supervised construction of diesels in a new oiler. In World War I, Nimitz served as engineering aide and chief of staff to the commander of the U.S. Atlantic submarine flotilla.
Nimitz, recognizing his main talent, now shifted the direction of his career from operating machinery to directing people, a new emphasis put severely to the test in 1920 when he oversaw the building of a submarine base at Pearl Harbor. In 1922–23, Commander Nimitz attended the Naval War College. Thereafter, in a series of promotions, he rose in rank and command. In 1933, as captain, he commanded a heavy cruiser. In 1938, as rear admiral, he assumed command of Battleship Division One. The following year he went ashore as a bureau chief with the function of assembling and training officers and enlisted men for naval expansion in the impending World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, following the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, appointed Nimitz commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet and subsequently of the Pacific Ocean Areas, entrusting to his command all American and Allied sea, land, and air forces in the north, central, and south Pacific. From his Pearl Harbor headquarters, Nimitz directed growing American forces in the 1942 carrier battles of the Coral Sea and Midway and in the reconquest of Guadalcanal, victories that brought the southern and eastern advance of the Japanese to a halt and turned the tide of war.
In 1943, forces under Nimitz ousted the Japanese from the Aleutians and collaborated with Gen. Douglas MacArthur's southwest Pacific forces in reconquering the Solomons and eastern New Guinea. In 1944, the two commanders cooperated in a drive to the Philippines, MacArthur by amphibious advances along the New Guinea north coast, Nimitz by conquest of the Gilbert, Marshall, and Mariana islands and the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, sea fights that virtually eliminated the Japanese fleet.
In 1945, Nimitz, wearing the five stars of his new rank of fleet admiral, directed the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa from his advanced headquarters on Guam and ordered the bombings and bombardments of Japan that preceded the Japanese capitulation. On the deck of the battleship Missouri he and General MacArthur signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of the United States.
Following the war, Nimitz served two years as chief of naval operations, then settled at Berkeley, California. He limited his public activities to making an occasional speech on behalf of the United Nations and serving as regent of the University of California. His health declining, the navy transferred him to more comfortable quarters on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay. Here he died 20 February 1966.
[See also World War II, U.S. Naval Operations in: The Pacific.]
Bibliography
E. B. Potter , Nimitz, 1976.
E. B. Potter
MLA
Chicago
APA
"Nimitz, Chester." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. . Encyclopedia.com. 18 Feb. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
"Nimitz, Chester." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. . Encyclopedia.com. (February 18, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester
"Nimitz, Chester." The Oxford Companion to American Military History. . Retrieved February 18, 2019 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester
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Nimitz, Chester William
The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
Copyright The Columbia University Press
Chester William Nimitz (nĬm´Ĭts), 1885–1966, American admiral, b. Fredericksburg, Tex. A graduate of Annapolis, he was chief of staff to the commander of the submarine force of the Atlantic Fleet in World War I. In 1939, he was made chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he succeeded (1941) Husband E. Kimmel as commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz headed the naval fighting forces in the Pacific throughout World War II. In Dec., 1944, he was made fleet admiral (five-star admiral) and a year later succeeded Ernest J. King as chief of naval operations. After he retired (Dec., 1947) from the navy, he headed (1949) the United Nations commission in the dispute over Kashmir.
See E. P. Hoyt, How They Won the War in the Pacific (1970).
Cite this article
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"Nimitz, Chester William." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Encyclopedia.com. 18 Feb. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
"Nimitz, Chester William." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Encyclopedia.com. (February 18, 2019). https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester-william
"Nimitz, Chester William." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Retrieved February 18, 2019 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nimitz-chester-william
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Nimitz, Chester William
World Encyclopedia
© World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005.
Nimitz, Chester William (1885–1966) US admiral. He served in submarines during World War I, and commanded the Pacific fleet during World War II, directing operations against the Japanese at Midway and subsequent battles."
Chester William Nimitz | Encyclopedia.com
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Chester W. Nimitz - Fleet Admiral of the US Navy | Biography Documentary
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Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that February 24 is the anniversary of the birth of fleet admiral of the United States Navy Chester William Nimitz, Sr. who "played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II."
Rest in peace Chester William Nimitz, Sr.
Relegated to a submariner early in his naval career, in WWII he transformed the submarines and submariners from a after thought to a fleet of highly trained and dedicated sailors who rained death and destruction on the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Image:
1. 1945-09-02 The surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, representing the United States, signs the instrument of surrender.
2. United States Naval Academy midshipman Chester W Nimitz
3. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
4. 1941-12-31 Admiral Nimitiz assuming command of the Pacific Fleet aboard the USS GRAYLING.
Chester W. Nimitz - Fleet Admiral of the US Navy | Biography Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOhQR6WsQ_I
Background from history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/people/chiefs-of-naval-operations/fleet-admiral-chester-w--nimitz.html
"Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
Tenth Chief of Naval Operations; December 15, 1945–December 15, 1947
After brilliantly leading American forces to victory in World War II, Fleet Admiral Nimitz, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, hauled down his flag at Pearl Harbor and relieved Fleet Admiral King as Chief of Naval Operations. Accorded a hero’s welcome at home, the quiet, self-effacing officer described himself as merely “a representative of the brave men who fought” under his command.
When Admiral Nimitz took over as Chief of Naval Operations, rapid demobilization was the order of the day. He was faced with the perplexing problem of maintaining an effective fleet to carry out extensive operational commitments throughout the world. In the Pacific, naval vessels engaged in “Operation Magic Carpet” brought home more than two million American servicemembers over a period of six months. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and other troops were lifted to their homelands, as the Navy conducted operations in the disarmament and the transfer of control and occupation of territories previously held by the enemies.
The task of reducing the most powerful Navy in history to a fraction of its wartime peak entailed drastic cutbacks in ships, personnel, and the shore establishment; surplus property disposal; and cancellations of construction contracts. Fleet Admiral Nimitz provided the administration necessary to achieve this huge rollback in an orderly fashion without destroying the Navy’s effectiveness. Programs were initiated for the establishment and maintenance of active and reserve fleets with the potential strength and readiness required to support national policy.
Fleet Admiral Nimitz faced a new set of challenges to American naval power. With the destruction of the German and Japanese navies and the advent of the atomic bomb, the continuance of a major U.S. Navy was questioned. Nimitz was persuasive in his efforts to retain balanced naval forces.
In response to the campaign to merge the military services within a single executive department and under a single Chief of Staff, his leadership played a key role in achieving a reasonable compromise, one in which naval aviation and the Marine Corps remained under the Department of the Navy.
The Navy effectively met the new challenges of the Cold War. The deployment of naval forces to crisis points in the Mediterranean and elsewhere was a major influence in stemming Communist advances.
In the midst of overriding demobilization pressures and extensive operational commitments overseas, Fleet Admiral Nimitz remained acutely aware that the efficiency of the postwar Navy hinged on the continued development and use of technological innovations generated by the war. To prepare to meet future threats, the Navy stressed research and development. Emphasis was placed on antisubmarine warfare and, in January 1946, a Coordinator of Undersea Warfare was established in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations with responsibilities for both submarines and antisubmarine warfare. The Chief of Naval Operations also directed attention to the potential of guided missiles as seagoing weapon systems and to nuclear energy for ship propulsion. Prophetically, he reported, “the Navy of the future will be capable of launching missiles from surface vessels and submarines, and of delivering atomic bombs from carrier-based planes.” As his two-year term drew to a close late in 1947, the first post-World War II Chief of Naval Operations could take satisfaction that the Navy had weathered the hazards of demobilization and reorganization. Transition to a peacetime posture had been the main problem when Fleet Admiral Nimitz assumed office; Cold War operations and preparedness for possible conflict were in the forefront when he left.
Chester William Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, on February 24, 1885. After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1905, he was on the China Station for two years where, as an ensign, he had his first command, the gunboat USS Panay. Nimitz was with the young submarine service until 1913 when he was sent to Germany and Belgium to study diesel engines. Duty in the USS Maumee, the first diesel powered surface ship in the U.S. Navy, followed and, during
World War I, he was Chief of Staff to Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Post-World War I assignments included a tour as Senior Member, Board of Submarine Design in the Navy Department; as executive officer of USS South Carolina; command of USS Chicago; on the staff of Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet; and as a student at the Naval War College. Speaking at the college after World War II, Fleet Admiral Nimitz reflected on the value of his training there: “The war with Japan had been reenacted in the game room here by so many people in so many different ways that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise—absolutely nothing except the Kamikaze tactics toward the end of the war; we had not visualized those.”
In August of 1926 he was ordered to the University of California where he established one of the first Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps units. Various submarine and surface assignments followed, and in 1933 he commanded USS Augusta, flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. Again returning to Washington, DC, he was Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation for three years, back to sea to command a battleship division, and then Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in 1939. Admiral Nimitz was serving as Bureau Chief when he was chosen to be Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Shortly thereafter he was given the additional responsibilities of joint command as Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas. He was elevated to five-star fleet admiral rank in December 1944. Fleet Admiral Nimitz was one of the signatories of the Japanese surrender documents on board USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. He signed for the United States as General Douglas MacArthur signed for the United Nations.
Detached as Chief of Naval Operations, he became Special Assistant (Western Sea Frontier) to the Secretary of the Navy. Fleet Admiral Nimitz was extremely active in educational, cultural, and community affairs. He died at his quarters, Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco, CA, on February 20, 1966, and is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown CMSgt (Join to see) MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Sgt Albert Castro SSgt Boyd Herrst] SSG Ray Adkins SGT Charles H. Hawes SSG Martin Byrne PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT Gabe SnellLTC Greg Henning
Rest in peace Chester William Nimitz, Sr.
Relegated to a submariner early in his naval career, in WWII he transformed the submarines and submariners from a after thought to a fleet of highly trained and dedicated sailors who rained death and destruction on the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Image:
1. 1945-09-02 The surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, representing the United States, signs the instrument of surrender.
2. United States Naval Academy midshipman Chester W Nimitz
3. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
4. 1941-12-31 Admiral Nimitiz assuming command of the Pacific Fleet aboard the USS GRAYLING.
Chester W. Nimitz - Fleet Admiral of the US Navy | Biography Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOhQR6WsQ_I
Background from history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/people/chiefs-of-naval-operations/fleet-admiral-chester-w--nimitz.html
"Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
Tenth Chief of Naval Operations; December 15, 1945–December 15, 1947
After brilliantly leading American forces to victory in World War II, Fleet Admiral Nimitz, the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, hauled down his flag at Pearl Harbor and relieved Fleet Admiral King as Chief of Naval Operations. Accorded a hero’s welcome at home, the quiet, self-effacing officer described himself as merely “a representative of the brave men who fought” under his command.
When Admiral Nimitz took over as Chief of Naval Operations, rapid demobilization was the order of the day. He was faced with the perplexing problem of maintaining an effective fleet to carry out extensive operational commitments throughout the world. In the Pacific, naval vessels engaged in “Operation Magic Carpet” brought home more than two million American servicemembers over a period of six months. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and other troops were lifted to their homelands, as the Navy conducted operations in the disarmament and the transfer of control and occupation of territories previously held by the enemies.
The task of reducing the most powerful Navy in history to a fraction of its wartime peak entailed drastic cutbacks in ships, personnel, and the shore establishment; surplus property disposal; and cancellations of construction contracts. Fleet Admiral Nimitz provided the administration necessary to achieve this huge rollback in an orderly fashion without destroying the Navy’s effectiveness. Programs were initiated for the establishment and maintenance of active and reserve fleets with the potential strength and readiness required to support national policy.
Fleet Admiral Nimitz faced a new set of challenges to American naval power. With the destruction of the German and Japanese navies and the advent of the atomic bomb, the continuance of a major U.S. Navy was questioned. Nimitz was persuasive in his efforts to retain balanced naval forces.
In response to the campaign to merge the military services within a single executive department and under a single Chief of Staff, his leadership played a key role in achieving a reasonable compromise, one in which naval aviation and the Marine Corps remained under the Department of the Navy.
The Navy effectively met the new challenges of the Cold War. The deployment of naval forces to crisis points in the Mediterranean and elsewhere was a major influence in stemming Communist advances.
In the midst of overriding demobilization pressures and extensive operational commitments overseas, Fleet Admiral Nimitz remained acutely aware that the efficiency of the postwar Navy hinged on the continued development and use of technological innovations generated by the war. To prepare to meet future threats, the Navy stressed research and development. Emphasis was placed on antisubmarine warfare and, in January 1946, a Coordinator of Undersea Warfare was established in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations with responsibilities for both submarines and antisubmarine warfare. The Chief of Naval Operations also directed attention to the potential of guided missiles as seagoing weapon systems and to nuclear energy for ship propulsion. Prophetically, he reported, “the Navy of the future will be capable of launching missiles from surface vessels and submarines, and of delivering atomic bombs from carrier-based planes.” As his two-year term drew to a close late in 1947, the first post-World War II Chief of Naval Operations could take satisfaction that the Navy had weathered the hazards of demobilization and reorganization. Transition to a peacetime posture had been the main problem when Fleet Admiral Nimitz assumed office; Cold War operations and preparedness for possible conflict were in the forefront when he left.
Chester William Nimitz was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, on February 24, 1885. After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1905, he was on the China Station for two years where, as an ensign, he had his first command, the gunboat USS Panay. Nimitz was with the young submarine service until 1913 when he was sent to Germany and Belgium to study diesel engines. Duty in the USS Maumee, the first diesel powered surface ship in the U.S. Navy, followed and, during
World War I, he was Chief of Staff to Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Post-World War I assignments included a tour as Senior Member, Board of Submarine Design in the Navy Department; as executive officer of USS South Carolina; command of USS Chicago; on the staff of Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet; and as a student at the Naval War College. Speaking at the college after World War II, Fleet Admiral Nimitz reflected on the value of his training there: “The war with Japan had been reenacted in the game room here by so many people in so many different ways that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise—absolutely nothing except the Kamikaze tactics toward the end of the war; we had not visualized those.”
In August of 1926 he was ordered to the University of California where he established one of the first Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps units. Various submarine and surface assignments followed, and in 1933 he commanded USS Augusta, flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. Again returning to Washington, DC, he was Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation for three years, back to sea to command a battleship division, and then Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in 1939. Admiral Nimitz was serving as Bureau Chief when he was chosen to be Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Shortly thereafter he was given the additional responsibilities of joint command as Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas. He was elevated to five-star fleet admiral rank in December 1944. Fleet Admiral Nimitz was one of the signatories of the Japanese surrender documents on board USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. He signed for the United States as General Douglas MacArthur signed for the United Nations.
Detached as Chief of Naval Operations, he became Special Assistant (Western Sea Frontier) to the Secretary of the Navy. Fleet Admiral Nimitz was extremely active in educational, cultural, and community affairs. He died at his quarters, Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco, CA, on February 20, 1966, and is buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Orlando Illi Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price CPT Jack Durish Capt Tom Brown CMSgt (Join to see) MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SGT (Join to see) Sgt Albert Castro SSgt Boyd Herrst] SSG Ray Adkins SGT Charles H. Hawes SSG Martin Byrne PO1 William "Chip" Nagel CPT Gabe SnellLTC Greg Henning
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