Ships
- USS Dayton (CL-105) Captain from 18 January 1947 · Relieved on 3 September 1947
James Merrill Fernald commanded Dayton (CL-105) from 18 January 1947 to 3 September 1947. NavSource lists him as a captain whose final rank was rear admiral. The Navy Department Library biography says he was promoted to rear admiral on the retired list on 30 June 1949, on the basis of combat citations.
He was born in Rockland, Maine, on 7 June 1897, the son of George W. and Henrietta Sylvester Fernald. The biography dates his death to 8 March 1994. It gives no burial place.
He graduated from Tufts College, in Medford, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Arts. He enrolled in the Naval Reserve Force in June 1918, was commissioned ensign in April 1919, and was commissioned ensign in the regular Navy from 14 November 1921. The biography says he was advanced to captain to date from 17 June 1942. Before the war most of his sea service was in minecraft and cruisers, including Huron, Shawmut, Detroit, and New Orleans. He served three tours on the staff of Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet. The page prints that title as "Commander of Chief, Asiatic Fleet." His first command was the destroyer tender Black Hawk, of Destroyer Squadron 5 on the Asiatic Station. He took the radio-engineering course at the Naval Academy Postgraduate School and continued it at Yale, where he received a Master of Science in 1927. Shore duty included the Office of Naval Communications, with additional duty as an aide at the White House, and the Naval Gun Factory in Washington.
At the start of the war he was in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In 1943 and 1944 he commanded Appalachian. The biography calls her a destroyer tender and a flagship for two amphibious assault landings. The Bronze Star citation, with the combat "V," calls her the communication headquarters ship for two assault landings against Japanese-held islands in January and June 1944. The citation credits his direction of the ship's training and operations in the naval phase of those attacks. It is printed from the biography, which does not name a bulletin. When he left Appalachian he returned to Operations as assistant director of naval communications for plans and operations. In September 1945 he was ordered to the West Coast to command Rocky Mount.
The biography says he transferred in January 1947 to command of Dayton, light cruiser, with the Atlantic Fleet. NavSource dates that command from 18 January 1947 to 3 September 1947, when Captain Edward Robison Durgin relieved him. On his dates she was flagship in the Mediterranean for Admiral Richard L. Conolly. The biography says he was still in command of Dayton when relieved of active duty pending retirement on 30 June 1949, and the page prints "relived" for relieved. NavSource has him off the ship from 3 September 1947. The command lines follow NavSource. He went on the retired list on 30 June 1949 as a rear admiral. The biography also lists the World War I Victory Medal, the China Service Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.