Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN

Born in Frederickburg, Texas, in 1885, Chester W. Nimitz entered the United States Naval Academy at age 15 and graduated seventh in his class in 1905. He served with the Asiatic Fleet aboard USS Ohio, visited Japan, later commanded the captured Spanish gunboat Panay and USS Decatur, and then spent much of the next 20 years in the submarine service. There he became an expert in submarine tactics and technology, advocated early for diesel engines, directed construction of the submarine base at Pearl Harbor, and, after attending the Naval War College in the 1920's, studied possible Pacific war scenarios that later proved valuable. By December 7, 1941, he had reached flag rank and was Chief of the Bureau of Navigation. Within weeks of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he became Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and soon after Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, restoring morale, building an able and aggressive team, and commanding naval forces during the Battle of Midway and through the rest of the war. In 1944 he was promoted to the newly created rank of Fleet Admiral, and on September 2, 1945, after Japan's capitulation, President Truman designated him as the United States signatory at the formal Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. After the war he became Chief of Naval Operations, directed naval deployments in the opening years of the Cold War, and worked to restore goodwill with Japan, including the restoration of the battleship Mikasa, flagship of Marshal-Admiral Togo Heihachiro during the Russo-Japanese War. Nimitz died at his home in San Francisco on February 20, 1966, and was buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.

Pearl City, Hawaii · United States