William F. Halsey, Jr.

William Frederick Halsey, Jr. (October 30, 1882 – August 20, 1959), was the United States Navy Fleet Admiral who commanded the US Third Fleet during much of the Pacific War against Japan. Download high resolution version (590x744, 48 KB)Picture of Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. ... Download high resolution version (590x744, 48 KB)Picture of Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. ... October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... August 20 is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for naval operations. ... ... US landings in the Pacific, 1942–1945 The Pacific War, which is known in Japan as the Greater East Asia War, occurred in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in Asia. ...

Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on 30 October 1882, the son of Captain William F. Halsey,Sr. USN. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1904 and spent his early service years in battleships and torpedo craft. The latter became a speciality — he commanded the First Group of the Atlantic Fleet's Torpedo Flotilla in 1912–1913 and several torpedo boats and destroyers during the 1910s and 1920s. Lieutenant Commander Halsey's World War I service, including command of USS Shaw in 1918, was sufficiently distinctive to earn a Navy Cross. Elizabeth, as seen from Bayonne, New Jersey across Newark Bay. ... October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... 1882 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Teamwork: Fourth Class Midshipmen lock arms and use ropes made from uniform items as they brace themselves climbing the Herndon Monument The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is an institution for the undergraduate education of officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and is located in Annapolis, Maryland. ... HMS Victory in 1884 In naval warfare, battleships were the most heavily armed and armored warships afloat. ... USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range attackers (originally torpedo boats, later submarines and aircraft). ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations and... The first USS Shaw (DD-68) was commissioned on 9 April 1917 and served during World War One as a convoy escort. ... The Navy Cross The Navy Cross is the second highest medal that can be awarded by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. ...

In 1922–1925, Halsey served as Naval Attache in Berlin, Germany, and commanded USS Dale during a European cruise. During 1930–1932, Captain Halsey led two destroyer squadrons. He studied at the Naval War College in the mid-1930s and also received instruction as a Naval Aviation Observer. He then commanded the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga and the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida. Halsey was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1938, commanding Carrier Divisions for the next three years, and, as a Vice Admiral, also serving as Commander Aircraft Battle Force. For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation). ... The third USS Dale (DD-290) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. ... Logo of the Naval War College The Naval War College (NWC) of the United States Navy is an education and research institution that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy. ... An aircraft carrier is a warship whose main role is to deploy and recover aircraft—in effect acting as a sea-going airbase. ... The fifth USS Saratoga (CV-3) was the third aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. ... This article is about the inland city of Pensacola. ...

Vice Admiral Halsey was at sea in his flagship, USS Enterprise, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During the first six months of the war, his carrier task force took part in raids on enemy-held islands and in the Doolittle Raid on Japan. By this time he had acquired the nickname "Bull," after his slogan, "Hit hard, hit fast, hit often". Beached by illness just before the June 1942 Battle of Midway, he took command in the South Pacific in mid-October 1942, at a critical stage of the Guadalcanal Campaign. After Guadalcanal was secured in February 1943, Admiral Halsey's forces spent the rest of the year battling up the Solomon Islands Chain to Bougainville, then isolated the Japanese fortress at Rabaul by capturing positions in the Bismarck Archipelago. USS Enterprise (CV-6) was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and the seventh US Navy ship of that name. ... The Imperial Japanese Navy made its attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Doolittle Raid was a bomber raid launched by the United States on the Japanese mainland on April 18, 1942. ... The Battle of Midway took place on June 5, 1942 (June 4 – June 7 in U.S. time zones). ... The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the most important battles of World War II. The assault on the Japanese-occupied island of Guadalcanal by the Allied navies and 16,000 United States troops on 7 August 1942, was the first offensive by US land forces in the Pacific Campaign. ... Guadalcanal, a 2,510 square mile (6,500 km²) island in the Pacific Ocean and a province of the Solomon Islands, is largely a jungle. ... This article is about the island; Bougainville is also the name of a commune in the Somme département of France. ... Space Radar Image of Rabaul Volcano Rabaul was the capital of East New Britain province, on New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea until 1994. ... The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of New Guinea in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, named in honour of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck and belonging to Papua New Guinea. ...

Admiral Halsey left the South Pacific in May 1944, as the war surged toward the Philippines and Japan. From September 1944 to January 1945, he led the Third Fleet during campaigns to take the Palaus, Leyte and Luzon, on many raids on Japanese bases. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf he took the Third Fleet in pursuit of a force of Japanese carriers, leaving the Japanese surface fleet to engage a task force of destroyer escorts and light carriers. The Battle of Leyte Gulfe was a complicated affair, in part because portions of the American fleet were uninformed about the other's areas of responsibility. (The mish-mash of signals is covered in detail in the novel 'War and Remembrance.') This article is about the island. ... Map of the Philippines showing the island groups of Luzón, Visayas, and Mindanao. ... The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, fought in the seas around the island of Leyte in the Philippines from 23 October to 26 October 1944. ...

A message from Admiral Nimitz asking for the location of Task Force 34 ("Where is repeat where is Task Force 34"), the battleships that should have been covering the approaches to Leyte, led to ill-feeling due to a misunderstood piece of security padding (see "the world wonders"). Halsey recovered, though, by winning the battle though without the hammer-blow victory for which he had hoped. Yet, he commanded the Third Fleet through the end of the Pacific War and was present when Japan formally surrendered on the deck of his flagship, USS Missouri, on September 2, 1945. In cryptography, padding is the practice of adding material of varying length to the plaintext of messages. ... The world wonders was padding added by a radioman to a US Navy message from Admiral Chester Nimitz to Admiral William Halsey, Jr. ... Radars: AN/SPS-49 Air Search Radar AN/SPS-67 Surface Search Radar Fire control: 4 × Mk 37 Gun Fire Control 2 × Mk 38 Gun Director 1 × Mk 40 Gun Director EW: AN/SLQ-32 Other: AN/SLQ-25 NIXIE Decoy System 8 × Super Rapid Bloom Rocket Launchers (SRBOC) Armor... September 2 is the 245th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (246th in leap years). ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral in December 1945, Halsey retired from active duty in March 1947. Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey died on August 20, 1959 and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery. While he can hardly be censured for charging at the IJN at Leyte Gulf, the facts remain that the job of protecting the destroyer escorts and light carriers from an overwhelming enemy force known to be proceeding to the island was also part of his task. After the war, this fundamental point coloured his decisions regarding Leyte Gulf. Had he not charged off into the deep ocean to pursue the enemy, and instead stayed to smash the oncoming IJN force, he doubtless would have entered the history books as the next John Paul Jones. A Fleet Admiral in the United States Navy is an Admiral considered the equivalent of the United States Armys General of the Army. ... August 20 is the 232nd day of the year (233rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Arlington Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, is an American military cemetery established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Robert E. Lees home. ... John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747–July 18, 1792) was Americas first well-known naval hero in the American Revolutionary War. ...

Two ships have been named after Halsey, a decommissioned guided missile frigate (later cruiser) USS Halsey (CG-23) and a modern destroyer (DDG-97), see USS Halsey for further details. Two ships of the US Navy have been named USS Halsey in honor of Fleet Admiral William Bull Halsey, who served the United States Navy during the First and Second World Wars. ...

Halsey is also well known for being mentioned in the Paul McCartney song, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" in the 1971 album Ram. Halsey also rates a mention in the film 'The Hunt for Red October.' Paul McCartney, as photographed by John Kelley for the 1968 LP The Beatles (aka The White Album). Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942) is a British singer, musician and songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles. ... Ram is Paul McCartneys second solo album, officially credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, and was released in 1971. ...

External links

• William Halsey, Jr. biography on Official US Navy website
• Naval Historical Center photos
• Arlington Cemetery Page; also gives nickname "Bull"