Ships
- USS Bush (DD-529) Captain, 10 May 1943 – 12 June 1943
Commander Wallis Frederick Petersen of the United States Navy was the first commanding officer of the destroyer USS Bush (DD-529). He assumed command on 10 May 1943, the day the ship was commissioned, and served as her captain until 12 June 1943.
Bush was a Fletcher-class destroyer, one of the large class of fleet destroyers the Navy put into service during the Second World War. Ships of her kind screened carriers and transports, hunted submarines, and fought with five-inch guns, torpedoes, and depth charges. A captain who took a new destroyer at commissioning received a ship fresh from the builder and a crew that still had to learn the ship together.
Petersen's month in command was that opening stretch of her life. From 10 May to 12 June 1943 the work was the work of a new man-of-war: standing up the crew, trying the machinery, and drilling the ship so she could go to war. His tour as captain ended on 12 June 1943.
Other officers commanded Bush after he left her. Thurmond Augustus Smith and Rollin Everton Westholm both held command of the destroyer during her Pacific service. Westholm was her captain in the Okinawa campaign in the spring of 1945.
On 6 April 1945, off Okinawa, Japanese aircraft struck Bush and sank her. By then Petersen had been off the ship since June 1943, and the fighting that day belonged to the captain and crew then aboard. His part in her story is the first month: he commissioned her and began her service.