William Halsey, Jr.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Rememberance.')

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.

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.

The guided missile frigate (later guided missile cruiser) USS Halsey, 1963-1994, was named in honor of Fleet Admiral Halsey.

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.'

External links

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