Ships
- USS Yorktown (CV-10) Captain, 23 April 1945 – 19 November 1945
Walter Frederick Boone was born on 14 February 1898, the son of Thomas Lee Boone and Lily H. Reid Boone. His official Navy biography gives his birthplace as Berkeley, California; uboat.net gives Palo Alto. He went to Palo Alto High School and spent half a year at Stanford University before he was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1917. He graduated with the Class of 1921-A on 5 June 1920 and was commissioned ensign that day.
His early sea duty was in the battleships Texas and California and the light minelayer Burns. He went to Pensacola, where he stood first in his class, and was designated a naval aviator in April 1926. From then until December 1945 he held nothing but aviation posts. He flew with the scouting squadrons of the cruisers Cincinnati and Raleigh and with Fighting Squadron 6, and studied aviation ordnance at the Postgraduate School. He ran the air detail at the Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren and commanded Patrol Squadrons 6 and 4 at Pearl Harbor and Fighting Squadron 3. On the staff of Commander Aircraft, Battle Force, he was gunnery and tactics officer under Ernest J. King. From 1939 to 1942 he headed the armament section of the Bureau of Aeronautics. While on special duty at the American Embassy in London inspecting British aircraft armament, he saw the later stages of the Blitz.
He reported to Enterprise as executive officer in May 1942, just in time for Midway. He stayed with her through the months when she was the only working American carrier in the Pacific. At the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 26 October 1942, with the ship "under vicious attack by an overwhelming force of Japanese aircraft," he kept control of every department aboard, and he received the Silver Star. From January 1943 to March 1944 he was chief of staff to Commander, Task Force 22, a carrier group in the North Atlantic that later operated with the British Home Fleet. He then commanded all naval air bases in the Twelfth Naval District and NAS Alameda, and briefly served with Mitscher's Task Force 58.
On 23 April 1945 he took command of Yorktown (CV-10), at 1405 by the ship's log, off Okinawa. He commanded her through the last fast-carrier strikes on the Japanese home islands, and his Legion of Merit citation notes that he "coolly directed the maneuvering and defense of his ship from the exposed navigating bridge." He kept her until 19 November 1945.
After the war he was chief of staff to the Seventh Fleet in Chinese waters until May 1947. He then sat on the General Board and was Assistant CNO for Strategic Plans. He commanded Carrier Division 5 and was briefly acting commander of the Seventh Fleet, then commanded U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic, from 1951 to 1952 and served on the Joint Strategic Survey Committee. On 12 August 1954 he became Superintendent of the Naval Academy. On 1 May 1956 he became a full admiral and Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. From April 1958 to February 1960 he was the U.S. representative to NATO's Military Committee and Standing Group. He retired on 1 March 1960. In November 1962 NASA named him Deputy Associate Administrator for Defense Affairs.
He married Pauline Heller Currey of Shreveport, Louisiana. They had no children. Among his honors were the Distinguished Service Medal, honorary OBE from Britain and the Chinese Order of Yun-Hui. He died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C., on 19 March 1995, at the age of 97.
Sources
Official U.S. Navy biography, "Walter F. Boone, Admiral, USN" (epnaao.com PDF), including citations and chronological transcript of service.
Wikipedia, "Walter F. Boone."
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: Walter Frederick Boone.
Live Pacific Ships CV-10 page (assumed command at 1405, 23 April 1945).