Ships
- USS Randolph (CV-15) Captain from 26 July 1945 · Relieved on 22 September 1946
Jackson Rogers Tate was born on 15 October 1898 in Clearwater, Florida, the son of Earnest Carnes Tate and Leola Rogers Tate. He went to school in Philadelphia and Washington and also studied for a time in France. On 18 April 1917 he enlisted in the Naval Reserve Force, and on 2 December 1918 he was commissioned an ensign.
He entered naval aviation while flying from a ship was still a new art. As a lieutenant (junior grade) he served in an aircraft squadron and in 1922 flew from Langley, the Navy's first aircraft carrier. He transferred into the regular Navy on 26 May 1929. That summer he was based at San Diego with Saratoga. In 1940, then a lieutenant commander, he was air officer of Yorktown. His date of rank as captain was 18 June 1942.
During the Second World War he commanded the escort carrier Altamaha from 15 September 1942 to 14 October 1943. He next went to the Central Pacific. From 25 November 1943 to 23 February 1944 he was commanding officer of Tarawa Atoll, taking the island command after the assault troops had secured it, and for that service he received the Legion of Merit. Six months in command of the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi, Texas, followed. From January to June 1945 he was the senior naval member of the United States military mission in Moscow, under Army General John R. Deane.
After the surrender of Germany he returned to the western Pacific and took command of the aircraft carrier Randolph (CV-15) on 26 July 1945. The Essex-class ship had been commissioned in October 1944 under Felix Locke Baker and had already fought in the Okinawa campaign. From the day Tate assumed command through 15 August, Randolph launched strikes and sweeps against the Japanese home islands. For handling the ship and her air group in those final weeks he received a Gold Star in lieu of a fourth Legion of Merit, with the combat "V." He remained in command through the first year of peace and was relieved on 22 September 1946.
The rest of his active duty was in naval aviation ashore. He commanded the air stations at Terminal Island, Santa Ana, and Alameda in California, and the Naval Air Facility at Litchfield Park, Arizona. From March 1948 to February 1949 he also served as Commander, Naval Air Bases, Twelfth Naval District. He finished his career as a rear admiral.
While he was in Moscow he met the Soviet film actress Zoya Fyodorova. Their brief relationship left her pregnant. Soviet authorities ordered him out of the country, and she was arrested, convicted on an espionage charge, and imprisoned for years. Their daughter, Victoria, was born after his departure. Word of her reached him only in 1973. He spent two years working to bring her to the United States, and father and daughter met in 1975. Tate, who had undergone open-heart surgery, died of cancer on 19 July 1978 in Orange Park, Florida.