Pacific ships

USN · Commander

North, James R.

All captains
JN

Ships

Commander James R. North held command of the United States battleship Missouri (BB-63) twice in the mid-1950s. The first period ran from 26 March to 4 April 1953. The second ran from 18 September 1954 to 26 February 1955 and ended on the day the ship was decommissioned.

In the closing days of her Korean War cruise, Missouri was still bombarding targets ashore and still served as flagship of the Seventh Fleet. Her last bombardment of that war hit the Kojo area on the east coast of Korea on 25 March 1953. The next day, as the ship entered Sasebo, Captain Warner R. Edsall died of a heart attack on the bridge. North, the executive officer, assumed command that same day and served as acting commanding officer.

He remained in that role until 4 April 1953. At Yokosuka that day, Captain Robert Brodie, Jr., read his orders and relieved him, with Vice Admiral Joseph J. Clark, Commander, Seventh Fleet, present. On 6 April the battleship New Jersey replaced Missouri as Seventh Fleet flagship. Missouri sailed from Yokosuka on 7 April and reached Norfolk on 4 May.

North took command of Missouri a second time on 18 September 1954, relieving Captain Robert T. S. Keith. The ship had come west to be laid up. She left Norfolk in late August, stopped at Long Beach and San Francisco, and reached Seattle on 15 September. North then had charge of her through inactivation at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and his command ended when she was decommissioned on 26 February 1955.

At the decommissioning he stood at the center of the party holding the ship's commissioning pennant, with Commander William Davis, the executive officer, and Rear Admiral Homer N. Wallin, commander of the shipyard. In her first commission, three commanding officers held the rank of commander after serving as executive officer: John B. Colwell for about a month in early 1948, George E. Peckham for a few days in February 1950, and North. North alone among them held the command twice. After the pennant came down, Missouri remained in reserve until 1986.