Ships
- USS Minneapolis (CA-36) Captain from 19 May 1934 · Relieved on 5 December 1935
Gordon W. Haines, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in the class of 1905, spent his career in the United States Navy and reached the rank of captain. The sea command for which he is remembered is the heavy cruiser Minneapolis (CA-36). He was her first commanding officer, from the day she entered service on 19 May 1934 until 5 December 1935.
Before the First World War he commanded the auxiliary Panther, taking her on 5 January 1914. During the war he was a commander and served as executive officer of Canandaigua, a ship engaged in laying the North Sea mine barrage. For that service he received the Navy Cross.
After the armistice he moved into destroyers. He took command of Tattnall on 26 June 1919, the day that ship was commissioned, and of Reuben James on 24 September 1920, likewise at her commissioning. He left Reuben James on 1 May 1921. On 1 March 1924 he took command of the destroyer Bruce and was still in her at the start of 1925.
By the summer of 1933 Haines, by then a captain, had been selected for a new heavy cruiser building at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Minneapolis was a New Orleans-class ship of about 9,950 tons, armed with nine 8-inch guns, and was laid down there in June 1931. Miss Grace L. Newton sponsored her at the launch on 6 September 1933. Haines took command when the cruiser was commissioned on 19 May 1934.
The shakedown cruise carried Minneapolis to European waters from July through September 1934. After further work at the Philadelphia Navy Yard she sailed on 4 April 1935, passed through the Panama Canal, and arrived at San Diego on 18 April to join Cruiser Division 7 of the Scouting Force. For the rest of his tour Haines kept her on the Pacific coast as the new cruiser settled into fleet duty.
On 5 December 1935 Chester H. J. Keppler relieved him. In later years Minneapolis shifted to Pearl Harbor and fought through a long run of Pacific campaigns. Among the captains who had her in wartime were Frank Jacob Lowry and Charles Emery Rosendahl. Haines retired from the Navy as a captain.