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William Halsey Jr.

William "Bull" Halsey Jr. (30 October 1882-16 August 1959) was a Fleet Admiral of the US Navy during World War II, commanding United States naval forces in the South Pacific before taking command of the US Third Fleet in 1943.

Biography[]

William Halsey Jr. was born on 30 October 1882 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a descendant of New York senator Rufus King. Halsey studied medicine at the University of Virginia before entering the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in the fall of 1900. He graduated on 2 February 1904, and he rose through the ranks during peacetime. In 1938, he was promoted to Rear Admiral from Captain, and his battle fleet was moved to Hawaii.

Halsey led all of the ships at sea at the time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, fearing that Wake Island would be the target of the Imperial Japanese Navy's attack. He led hit-and-run carrier raids against Japan, and his slogan "Hit hard, hit fast, hit often" became a byword for the US Navy. Halsey led the navy during its campaigns in the Solomon Islands and the South Pacific, and he was given command of the US Third Fleet in 1943, overseeing more island-hopping campaigns before fighting at the decisive Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. He led the fleet until the end of the war, with Third Fleet aircraft bombing Tokyo, the naval base at Kure, the island of Hokkaido, and the bombardment of several coastal cities in preparation for an invasion of Japan. Halsey was well-known for his hatred of the Japanese people, saying that the Japanese language would only be spoken in hell by the end of World War II.

On 11 December 1945, he was promoted to Fleet Admiral when the war came to a close. He flew past Central America and South America on a goodwill flight trip, and he joined the Sons of the American Revolution chapter of New Jersey in 1946. After retiring from the US Navy, he joined the board of subsidiaries of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company and the American Cable and Radio Corporation, serving until 1957; he also attended the 1948 Republican National Convention with his former subordinate Harold Stassen. He died on vacation in Fishers Island, New York in 1959, and he was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

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