‘It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.’*
The proverbial stars seemed to be aligned for the young officer. After his graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1905, he was posted to a brand-new battleship in the Asiatic Fleet, a plum assignment at the time. His early performance was so impressive that, as an ensign, he was given command of the newly commissioned gunboat USS Panay and simultaneous command of a small naval station in the Philippines, prompting him to describe his good fortune as having “one foot ashore and one at sea.”
