Ships
- USS Colhoun (APD-2) In command, 7 August 1942
- USS Young (DD-580) Captain, 31 July 1943 – 26 August 1944
- USS Shields (DD-596) Captain, 8 February 1945 – 12 June 1945
George Bernard Madden was born in Oakland, California, on 28 February 1909. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1931. By the summer of 1939 he was a lieutenant, and in June 1942 he was a lieutenant commander.
On 7 July 1942 he took command of the high-speed transport Colhoun (APD-2). She was a Wickes-class destroyer from the First World War, rebuilt to land small bodies of troops, with part of her original gun battery removed to make room for boats and passengers. On 7 August 1942, with Madden in command, Colhoun put Marines ashore at Tulagi in the opening landings of the Guadalcanal campaign. Through the rest of that month she stayed on the run between the ships offshore and the beachhead.
On 30 August 1942, while Colhoun was unloading off Guadalcanal, Japanese aircraft attacked her. She was hit repeatedly and sank near Lunga Point. Fifty-one of her crew were killed. Madden survived. For his conduct in that action he received the Silver Star.
He next commanded the seaplane tender Williamson (AVD-2), a converted destroyer, from 14 November 1942 to 15 April 1943. On 31 July 1943 he placed the new Fletcher-class destroyer Young (DD-580) in commission. She had been built at Orange, Texas, and was armed for fleet work with 5-inch guns, torpedoes, and depth charges. Madden remained her captain until 26 August 1944.
Her first cruise was a shakedown through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. She then operated for a short time from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In November 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sailed for the Tehran Conference in the battleship Iowa, and Young was one of the destroyers on that screen. Before the Atlantic crossing was over, orders sent Young to the Pacific, and Madden commanded her there until he left the ship on 26 August 1944. For her service in the war Young received five battle stars.
On 8 February 1945, the day the Fletcher-class destroyer Shields (DD-596) was commissioned, Madden became her captain. He commanded Shields until 12 June 1945. He stayed in the Navy after the war, retired as a rear admiral, and died on 24 March 1982.