Ships
- USS Enterprise (CV-6) Captain from 21 March 1941 · Relieved on 30 June 1942
George Dominic Murray was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 6 July 1889. He went to the Naval Academy and graduated in 1911 in a class that included Morton Deyo, Harry W. Hill, Frank J. Lowry, John W. Reeves and Frederick Riefkohl, men who would later hold commands across the Pacific. In 1915 he earned his wings as Naval Aviator No. 22, so he was flying when naval aviation was still a handful of men and fragile seaplanes.
Through the 1920s and 1930s he grew up with the carrier service. At the start of 1924 he commanded Torpedo and Bombing Squadron 20. That January his seaplanes were shipped from San Diego to the Philippines in the cargo ship Vega to give the Asiatic Fleet its own air arm. He was promoted to captain on 1 July 1939.
On 21 March 1941 Murray took command of Enterprise (CV-6). He commanded her through the first, most desperate half-year of the Pacific war. On 4 December 1941 she delivered Marine Wildcat fighters to Wake Island. On the morning of 7 December her scout bombers flew into the Japanese attack over Pearl Harbor, and several were shot down. On 1 February 1942 her planes raided Wotje, Kwajalein and the Marshalls, the first American carrier offensive of the war. For that action Murray received the Navy Cross. She struck Wake on 24 February and Marcus on 4 March. In April she escorted Hornet on the Doolittle Raid against Tokyo. On 4 June 1942, at Midway, her dive bombers helped destroy the Japanese carrier force: they hit Akagi and Kaga while those ships were refueling and rearming their planes. He gave up command on 30 June 1942.
Promoted to rear admiral in May 1942, he led a carrier task force in the South Pacific. At the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942 he commanded the Hornet group, and Hornet was lost. From 17 August 1944 to 20 July 1945 he was Commander, Air Force, Pacific Fleet, the administrative head of the whole Pacific carrier air arm at its greatest size. At the end of the war he commanded the Marianas. Aboard his flagship, the heavy cruiser Portland, he accepted the Japanese surrender of the Caroline Islands at Truk.
After the war he commanded the First Fleet from August 1947 to August 1948. He retired as a full admiral in 1951. From 1947 until his retirement he was the most senior active naval aviator, and in 1961 he was named, after his death, the third recipient of the Gray Eagle Award. He was the stepfather of Vice Admiral Lloyd M. Mustin, and through him the step-grandfather and step-great-grandfather of two more Mustin vice admirals. He died in San Francisco on 18 June 1956 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Sources
Wikipedia, "George D. Murray."
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: George Dominic Murray (born Boston 6 Jul 1889; USNA 1911; ranks; Navy Cross 1 Feb 1942; Enterprise events).
NHHC, United States Naval Aviation 1910–1995, Appendix 2 (ComAirPac dates).
Live Pacific Ships page (Santa Cruz, Hornet group).