Ships
- USS Bearss (DD-654) Captain from 12 April 1944
John Alden Webster was born on 29 April 1909 in Townline, Erie County, New York, the son of John L. Webster and Marie E. Webster, née Zeller. He spent a year at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, then entered the U.S. Naval Academy as a midshipman on 14 June 1927 and graduated with the class of 1931.
His first sea duty was as a junior watch and division officer in a cruiser, through June 1932. He moved to destroyers as assistant gunnery officer and navigator of J. Fred Talbott, and from November 1932 to April 1934 served as torpedo officer, engineer, and navigator of Dahlgren. On 4 December 1939, then a lieutenant, he took command of the destroyer Herndon and remained in her until 9 September 1940.
After the United States entered the war he placed the new destroyer Forrest in commission in January 1942 and served as her executive officer until October 1942. He then joined the staff of Commander Destroyer Squadron 15 as gunnery and operations officer. He was advanced to temporary lieutenant commander in June 1942 and to temporary commander that November. His Atlantic and Mediterranean service brought the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three stars.
On 12 April 1944, at Mobile, Alabama, Webster commissioned the Fletcher-class destroyer Bearss and became her commanding officer. Gulf Shipbuilding at Chickasaw had launched her on 25 July 1943. She finished fitting out at Mobile and New Orleans, sailed for Bermuda on 30 April, and spent May on shakedown, exercising her guns, antiaircraft battery, and antisubmarine gear. In July she operated in Hawaiian waters. On 9 August 1944 she arrived at Adak in the Aleutians.
From Adak, Bearss worked with Task Forces 92 and 94 in the North Pacific. Under Webster she hunted Japanese shipping, shelled shore positions in the Kuriles, and patrolled the Sea of Okhotsk. Actions during his command included the bombardments of Matsuwa on 21 November 1944, Suribachi Wan on 5 January 1945, Kurabu Wan on 18 February 1945, and Matsuwa again on 16 March 1945. For his service as commanding officer from 9 August 1944 to 13 April 1945 he received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat V, recognizing his direction of the ship's gunfire in four bombardments of Japanese positions in the Kuriles.
He left Bearss in April 1945, and Emmett Mobley Compton followed him in command. In May 1945 Webster reported to the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington as detail officer for commanders, and he held that assignment until August 1948. He also received the Navy Commendation Ribbon with Combat V.
In August 1948 he was detached to help fit out the heavy cruiser Newport News at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Virginia. He served as her executive officer from her commissioning in January 1949 until September 1950. From 16 January to 18 May 1950 the cruiser was on occupation duty in European waters.
In September 1954 Webster entered the National War College and finished in June 1955. He then served in Tokyo on the joint staff of the Commander in Chief, Far East, as deputy assistant chief of staff for civil affairs. In January 1957 he assumed command of the heavy cruiser Rochester. About a year later, in February 1958, he became chief of staff to Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. On 13 August 1959 he was ordered to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. By then a captain, he died on 14 February 2006 in Chevy Chase, Maryland, at the age of ninety-six.