Ships
- USS Dunlap (DD-384) Captain from 22 August 1944 · Relieved when she was decommissioned, 14 December 1945
Cecil Rice Welte was a United States Navy officer whose name is tied to the destroyer Dunlap in the last year of the Pacific war. Born on 6 October 1915, he graduated from the Naval Academy with the class of 1938 and remained in the service until he retired as a rear admiral. He died on 23 December 1991.
On 22 August 1944 he took command of Dunlap, DD-384, as a lieutenant commander, relieving Clifton Iverson. The ship had been in commission since 12 June 1937, when Albert Ernest Schrader, Jr. first took her to sea. She was a prewar destroyer and already a veteran. In August 1943, with Iverson in command, she had fought in the night battle of Vella Gulf, where Frederick Moosbrugger led American destroyers against a Japanese force carrying reinforcements toward Kolombangara.
Welte's first operations were bombardments. On 3 September 1944 Dunlap shelled Wake Island. From 4 September 1944 through 5 January 1945 he took her against Wake, Marcus, Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima, and Haha Jima. He closed the shore under enemy gunfire, and the ship damaged coastal guns, installations, stores, and small boats. The crew came through unhurt, and Dunlap escaped serious damage. During that same stretch he shared equally with two other destroyers in the destruction of a Japanese destroyer-transport and four landing ships.
The destroyer stayed busy between those raids. On 28 November 1944 Welte, still a lieutenant commander, escorted the submarine Caiman into Saipan after her commanding officer fell ill. That autumn Dunlap took part in the Leyte invasion. In 1945 she supported the landings on Iwo Jima and then patrolled the Bonin Islands.
On 19 June 1945 Dunlap sank a Japanese craft trying to leave Chichi Jima and took 52 survivors aboard. After Japan's surrender, Japanese officers came on board on 31 August to discuss terms for the Bonin Islands. They returned on 3 September, and the surrender was signed on Dunlap's deck off Chichi Jima.
Welte kept command for the voyage home. The ship left Iwo Jima on 19 September 1945, called at San Pedro, California, and reached Houston, Texas, in time for Navy Day. She arrived at Norfolk on 7 November and was decommissioned on 14 December 1945. Welte was relieved that day, as Dunlap went out of commission. The destroyer was stricken on 28 January 1947 and sold for scrap on 31 December 1947.
For the bombardments and the shared sinkings from September 1944 to January 1945, he received the Silver Star. The award was made in the grade of commander for service he had performed as a lieutenant commander, and the citation praised the aggressive way he handled Dunlap at short range. He closed his career as a rear admiral.