In His Own Words: VADM John M. Bird, USN (Retired)
I first joined the Naval Institute as a Naval Academy Midshipman in the early 1970s. My father was a career naval officer—Civil Engineer Corps—and a longtime Institute Member. He strongly recommended I join. I have learned so much as a result of my membership in this critically important professional organization! It is educational, enlightening, and powerful in its reach and has such a positive effect on the Sea Services. It is part of being a professional.
The Naval Institute empowers naval officers and senior NCOs and advances the Navy’s warfighting capability. It causes naval leadership at all levels to think, debate, discuss, and be informed on the issues and concerns facing the Navy and our national security. Through this discourse, the best causes and solutions are brought to the forefront and advanced.
Because I served for 35 years in this great sea-going service and believe maritime power is critical to our long-term national security and prosperity, the Naval Institute’s mission is of special importance to me. It supports the maritime profession of arms and the Navy I love.
Admiral Harold Page Smith Oral History is Available
The late Admiral Harold Page Smith participated in two interviews covering his tours in battleships. During these freewheeling discussions with historian Paul Stillwell he frequently strayed to other periods of his life, including this brief excerpt from his service as Chief of Naval Personnel in the late 1950s.
I buried two of the Navy’s finest in the summer of 1959, Fleet Admirals William Leahy and William Halsey. As Chief of Personnel, I was in charge of their funerals.
Admiral Halsey’s, on the 20th of August at the National Cathedral in Washington, was one of the prettiest things you’ve ever seen. All the great old men of our time were gathered there. President Eisenhower couldn’t attend, so he asked Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz to represent him. With the honorary pallbearers in place, in came Nimitz in his white uniform and walked to the bier and bowed over it for about a minute. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
After the service, I was back at work when there was a great hullabaloo in the outer office. It was Admiral Nimitz, who said, ‘I’ve got to head back West now, but there are two things you can do for me. First, I know that General George Marshall is dying and will go soon. I know the Army’s going to ask me to come back, and I just must not. I can’t do another one. The next funeral of a five-star officer I attend is going to be in San Francisco.’ He meant himself. I made all the proper exclamations, but it was clear the cross-country travel and back-to-back funerals had taken a lot out of him.
‘Number two, I want you to go to House Armed Services Chairman Carl Vinson and remind him that when the five-star rank was created, there was debate about whether the last one would go to Halsey or Spruance. Admiral Halsey got the five stars—well deserved—but Admiral Spruance was also a splendid officer. All the Navy’s fleet admirals are dead except me. Spruance is an old man; it won’t cost the country very much to promote him now to five stars. Please ask the chairman to promote him.’
So immediately after Admiral Nimitz left, I called the chairman and said, ‘Admiral Nimitz sends his abject apologies that he can’t come pay his respects, but he would . . .’ and told him the whole story.
Chairman Vinson had me stop by in person the next morning. ‘Now, tell me, who are the five-star admirals?’ So I told him. ‘And who are the five-star generals?’ He knew, but he was just formulating what he was going to tell me. ‘Now, they were all created during World War II.’
I said, ‘No sir, General Omar Bradley was created after 1947.’
‘Oh, yeah, that’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. That was a mistake; we shouldn’t have done it. We should leave that exalted rank for a major war.
‘You tell Admiral Nimitz—with my deepest respect and my best hopes, and so forth—that we’re going to leave it just like it is.’
And so it remained.
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