Fleet Admiral William Halsey

Fleet Admiral William Halsey was one of the most important and controversial figures in the history of the U.S. Navy. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on October 30, 1882, he achieved great fame from the earliest days of World War II as an early proponent of naval air power, leading the first U.S. Navy offensive in 1942 using aircraft carriers and later the Doolittle Raid against Tokyo. Aggressive in style and known for his salty looks, hatred of the enemy, colorful language, and reputation as a true sailor's admiral, he was nicknamed "Bull" Halsey by the Allied press, and with the motto "Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often," he strongly influenced Allied strategy and morale, especially during the fighting on and around Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands in 1942-43. By 1944, after the United States Navy had recovered from Pearl Harbor and expanded into the largest navy in history, Halsey commanded the 3rd Fleet from the flag bridge of the battleship New Jersey, whose speed and communications gear allowed it to keep up with the fleet's fast carriers. During the Allied advance into the Philippine Islands in 1944, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf unfolded in mid-October, Japan used planeless aircraft carriers as bait to draw him away from the invasion beaches while introducing kamikaze attacks from land bases, and in a controversial move he took the bait, though the battle still became a major Allied victory that crushed the world's third largest navy and left the Imperial Japanese Navy no longer a serious threat. After Japan surrendered in 1945, he was promoted as the fourth and last five-star fleet admiral in American naval history; he died in 1959. In 1968, New Jersey's crew restored the flag bridge at their own expense and placed five stars on the deck in his memory, and in 2004 the U.S. Navy named a second destroyer, USS Halsey (DDG-97), in his honor.

Camden, New Jersey · United States