Ships
- USS Tucson (CL-98) Captain from 1948 · Relieved on 11 June 1949
Stephen George Barchet had the light cruiser Tucson (CL-98) from 1948 until 11 June 1949, the day she was decommissioned at Mare Island. NavSource lists him as a captain of the class of 1924 and gives his final rank as rear admiral. His Navy biography, which leaves him a captain under orders to Great Lakes, dates the Tucson command from June 1948.
He was born on 4 April 1901 at St. Margarets, Maryland, the son of George E. and Mathilde Grossert Barchet. The Navy file header dates his death 30 November 1964. Uboat.net gives the same day and places the death at Annapolis, Maryland, and it gives the birthplace as Annapolis rather than St. Margarets.
He attended Donaldson School in Baltimore, St. Johns College in Annapolis, and Johns Hopkins before his appointment to the Naval Academy from Ohio in 1920. As a midshipman he played football and baseball for four years. He was graduated and commissioned ensign on 4 June 1924. Uboat.net prints the ensign date as 5 June 1924. The biography dates his captain's rank from 1 June 1943. After graduation he had a short tour at the Norfolk Navy Yard, temporary duty at the Academy from September to November 1924, and then the battleship New York until May 1925. He trained at Edgewood Arsenal, served in Dallas from July 1925 to June 1926, and took the torpedo course at Newport. In December 1926 he joined Chewink at New London for submarine training, qualified in August 1927, and went to O-8. He moved to S-1 in November 1929 and to R-1 from December 1930 to May 1931. He taught electrical engineering and physics at the Academy until May 1934, then commanded S-12 until September 1936. He joined Wyoming the next month and, in June 1937, the staff of the Postgraduate School at Annapolis.
In June 1940 he took command of the minelaying submarine Argonaut. Uboat.net dates that command from 13 June 1940 to 22 June 1942 and records that she was on patrol near Midway with Trout when Pearl Harbor was attacked. After sunset on 7 December she surfaced, heard gunfire, submerged, and closed two Japanese destroyers bombarding Midway. In June 1942 he became commander of Submarine Division 32. In April 1943 he went briefly to the Naval Mine Warfare Test Center at Solomons, Maryland, and in July 1943 he became operations officer for Commander Submarines, Atlantic Fleet. The Legion of Merit for July 1943 to August 1944 credits him with the antisubmarine training of Atlantic air and surface units and with the shakedown schedule of new submarines. In December 1944 he joined the staff of Commander Seventh Amphibious Force. A Gold Star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit, with Combat "V," covers January to July 1945, including duty as control officer at the line of departure off Lingayen on 9 January, inside the range of shore batteries, and later as the force's representative at Leyte for shipping down through the Philippines and on to Borneo. The Bronze Star covers July to November 1945, when he coordinated shipping for the occupation of Korea and north China, the movement of Chinese Nationalist troops, and the repatriation of Japanese, and served as acting chief of staff.
He came home in May 1946 as executive officer of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport and stayed until June 1948, when he assumed command of Tucson. DANFS has her on the west coast, then at Mare Island from 9 February 1949 for inactivation, and decommissioned on 11 June 1949. NavSource ends him that day. The biography sends him in June 1949 to the staff of the Naval War College until March 1951, then to command of the Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek, and then, as the file stood, to be chief of staff to the commandant of the Ninth Naval District at Great Lakes. Uboat.net dates his retirement as rear admiral on 1 July 1954. He died on 30 November 1964.