Ships
- USS Saratoga (CV-3) Captain from 22 August 1943 · Relieved on 22 June 1944
John Howard Cassady was born in Spencer, Indiana, on 3 April 1896. He entered the United States Naval Academy on 9 June 1915. The First World War shortened the course, and he was commissioned an ensign on 7 June 1918. The Academy records him with the class of 1919.
His early sea duty included service in the minelayer Aroostook. In 1928 he qualified as a naval aviator at Naval Air Station Pensacola. From December 1928 to May 1930 he flew with Scouting Squadron 2 from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3). He was promoted to lieutenant commander in April 1933. From 1937 to 1939 he was assistant naval attaché in Rome, and he became a commander in January 1939.
On the eve of the Second World War he was operations officer on the staff of Commander, Aircraft, Atlantic Fleet. After the United States entered the war he served as chief of staff for air operational training at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, and then in the training division of the Bureau of Aeronautics. He was made a temporary captain on 17 June 1942. On 22 August 1943 he took command of Saratoga.
That autumn the carrier fought in the Solomon Islands. On 1 and 2 November 1943 her aircraft struck Japanese airfields in the Buka-Bonis area of Bougainville while Allied troops were going ashore. On 5 November and again on 11 November the air group attacked the harbor at Rabaul, damaging warships in the anchorage and destroying aircraft. Cassady received the Legion of Merit for the offensive spirit he built into the ship and for the strikes those raids carried through.
Early in 1944 Saratoga supported the push through the Marshall Islands, including the capture of Eniwetok. Cassady then took her into the Indian Ocean. There he commanded a task force operating with the British Eastern Fleet and remained captain of the carrier. From 9 March to 20 May 1944, aircraft from Saratoga and the British carrier Illustrious struck Sabang on Sumatra and Surabaya on Java, wrecking harbor facilities and oil stores at a small cost in crews and planes. A further Legion of Merit, with the combat distinguishing device, recognized that cruise. He was relieved of command on 22 June 1944. He ultimately held the Legion of Merit three times.
After leaving Saratoga he continued in senior naval aviation assignments. In 1945 and 1946 he commanded Carrier Division Four in the Atlantic Fleet. From January 1950 to May 1952 he was Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air, with the rank of vice admiral. He commanded the Sixth Fleet from 1952 to 1954. On 7 April 1954 he was promoted to admiral and became Commander in Chief, United States Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. He retired on 1 May 1956. Cassady died in Boca Raton, Florida, on 25 January 1969, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.