Rear Admiral John D. Hayes, U. S. Navy (Retired), has written extensively on modern applications of sea power for professional military and naval periodicals, particularly the U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, and for non-professional publications. In 1965 he won the U. S. Naval Institute’s Prize Essay Contest with “Sine Qua Non of U. S. Sea Power: the Merchant Ship.” He prepared commentaries, similar to the one appearing in this book, for the 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 editions of Naval Review. Graduated from the Naval Academy in 1924, he served successively in the USS Milwaukee (CL-5), USS Litchfield (DD-336), and USS West Virginia (BB-48), with time out to obtain a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California and for study at the Naval Postgraduate School. He commanded the USS Hunt (DD-194) and USS Breckinridge (DD-148), and in 1941 became chief engineer of the USS Astoria (CA-34), and was aboard her when she was lost in 1942. He was in the Third Amphibious Force and then on the staff of the Seventh Amphibious Force, and drew up the plans for the Philippine and Borneo operations and for the occupation of Korea and North China in 1945. During the Korean War he was Commander Service Squadron One, Pacific Fleet. He attended the Army and Navy Staff College, the Naval War College, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and was on the faculty of the latter before he retired in 1954.
