William D. Leahy

Fleet Admiral William Daniel Leahy (May 6, 1875 – July 20, 1959) was an American naval officer, Governor of Puerto Rico and Ambassador to France.

Leahy was appointed as Chief of Staff to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 and served in that position throughout World War II, and continued under President Harry S. Truman until finally retiring in 1949. Fleet Admiral Leahy was the first U.S. military officer ever to hold a five-star rank in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Early life
Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa before moving to Ashland, Wisconsin. His education included the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1897.

Naval service and retirement
Midshipman Leahy was assigned to USS Oregon, then in the Pacific. He was in that battleship when she made her famous dash around Cape Horn in the spring of 1898 to participate in the Battle of Santiago on July 3 during the Spanish-American War.

Having completed the two years of sea duty—then required by law—he was commissioned Ensign on July 1, 1899. At that time, he was on the Asiatic Station, where, during the Philippine-American War and the Boxer Rebellion in China, he served on the USS Castine, the USS Glacier and commanded the gunboat USS Mariveles. He returned to the United States in 1902, and for the next five years did duty onboard the USS Tacoma and the USS Boston which were stationed in Panama during the early period of construction of the canal.

His first shore cruise was at the Naval Academy. Beginning in 1907, he served as instructor in the Department of Physics and Chemistry for two years. He went to sea in 1909 and served as navigator of the armored cruiser California in the Pacific Fleet. During the American Occupation of Nicaragua in 1912, he was Chief of Staff to the Commander Naval Forces there.

Late in 1912, he came ashore in Washington as Assistant Director of Gunnery Exercises and Engineering Competitions. In 1913, he was assigned to the Bureau of Navigation as a detail officer where he served until 1915. At that time, he took command of the dispatch gunboat USS Dolphin, and established a very close friendship with, the then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt who cruised with him on the ship. He was in that assignment in early 1917 in West Indian waters and had additional duty as Senior Aide on the Staff of Commander Squadron Three of the Patrol Force Atlantic Fleet.

He served for almost a year as the Executive Officer of USS Nevada and in April 1918 went to command the USS Princess Matoika, formerly Princess Alice, transporting troops to France. It was during this tour that he was awarded the Navy Cross.

After a short cruise in that command, he came ashore in 1918 and served for three years as director of Gunnery Exercises and Engineering Competition in the Navy Department, and as senior member of the Fire Control Board.

In 1921, he went to sea in command of USS St. Louis, flagship of the Naval Detachment in Turkish waters during the war between Turkey and Greece. At the end of that war, he was given command of Mine Squadron One, and in 1922 further additional duty as commander, Control Force.

He returned to the U.S., and from 1923 to 1926, he served as Director of Officer Personnel in the Bureau of Navigation, and then had one year in command of the battleship USS New Mexico.

In 1927, he reached flag rank and became Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. After almost four years, he went to sea in 1931 as Commander Destroyers Scouting Force.

His son, William H. Leahy graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1927 and was engaged in pre-WW II naval intelligence operations. .

In 1933, he came ashore in Washington as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation for two years, when he went to sea as a vice admiral, and Commander Battleships Battle Force. In 1936, he hoisted his four-star flag in USS California and Commander in Chief Battle Force.

He was appointed Chief of Naval Operations, took the oath of office in January 1937 to serve until August 1939 when he was placed on the retired list. On that occasion, President Roosevelt said "Bill, if we have a war, you're going to be right back here helping me run it."

Before retiring as CNO, Leahy joined his wife Louise Harrington Leahy when she sponsored the USS Cimarron (AO-22) commissioning on March 20, 1939.

Governor of Puerto Rico
From September 1939 until November 1940, Leahy served as Governor of Puerto Rico. He oversaw the development of military bases and stations across the island while serving as governor. He took an open stance of not intervening directly in local politics, attempted to understand and respect local customs, and initiated various major public works projects in the island. While given the unflattering sobriquet "Almirante Lija" ("Admiral Sandpaper") by locals, based on his family name, he was regarded as one of the most lenient American governors of the several that served Puerto Rico in the first half of the 20th century.

Ambassador to France
Leahy was appointed Ambassador to France (later referred to as Vichy France for the city in which the capital was located) in 1941 following that country's surrender to Germany. Leahy relates in his memoir I Was There that (his) "major task was to keep the French on our side in so far as possible". He was recalled in May 1942.

Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief
After the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt decided he needed a senior military officer as personal adviser and point of contact with his three service chiefs, Admiral Ernest King of the Navy, General George Marshall of the Army and General Henry Arnold of the Army Air Forces. The service chiefs resisted this move until Marshall suggested that only Leahy would be accepted in this post. On July 6, 1942, Leahy was appointed Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Army and Navy, the President of the United States.

Leahy spent D-Day, June 6, 1944, in his home town of Hampton, Iowa. This well-publicized "sentimental journey" was part of the deception efforts surrounding the Allied invasion of Europe. The idea was to lull any German agents in Washington, D.C. or elsewhere in the US into believing that the operation would not take place while such an important officer was out of the capital.

Atomic bomb
Leahy was appointed the first US Fleet Admiral on December 15, 1944. After Vannevar Bush explained how the atomic bomb worked Leahy told president Harry S. Truman, "This is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives." After the bomb was tested, Leahy was strongly opposed to its use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In his memoir he wrote:

"Once it had been tested, President Truman faced the decision as to whether to use it. He did not like the idea, but he was persuaded that it would shorten the war against Japan and save American lives. It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons... My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make wars in that fashion, and that wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

After mediating between the United States Navy and the Government of Puerto Rico over the involuntary transfer of part of the islands of Vieques and Culebra to naval authorities, Leahy resigned in March 1949 and the following year published his war memoirs, I Was There. Fleet Admiral Leahy died at Bethesda Naval Hospital on July 20, 1959.

A bilingual book, "Las memorias de Leahy: los relatos del almirante William D. Leahy sobre su gobernación de Puerto Rico (1939-1940)" listing his diary entries from Puerto Rico in both Spanish and English, was published by the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation in 2001.

Dates of rank

 * Midshipman: 1897, 15th of class of 47