page_title: Edward J. O'Donnell (military)
section_title: Early naval career
hierarchical_section_title: Edward J. O'Donnell (military) / Early naval career
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2), burning and sinking after her crew abandoned ship during the Battle of the Coral Sea, 8 May 1942. Note the planes parked aft, where the fires have not yet reached.
context_page_description: Edward Joseph O'Donnell was an American naval officer. He commanded the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base from December 1960 to 1963, and led naval forces in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. He then served as senior navy member of the Military Studies and Liaison division at The Pentagon and superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School before retiring as a rear admiral in 1967. After retirement, O'Donnell was president of the New York Maritime College until 1972.
  Born in Boston, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1929. He then served on various naval ships before taking command of Destroyer Division 22 in the aftermath of World War II. O'Donnell also commanded the USS George Clymer and USS New Jersey. He died in 1991.
context_section_description: O'Donnell's first assignment in the Navy was from September 1929 to May 1930 aboard the USS Florida, working engineering and deck. After service on the Florida and before World War II, he served on board the USS John D. Ford, USS Houston, and the USS San Francisco while doing postgraduate work in ordnance engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School, then in Annapolis, Maryland. O'Donnell served as a gunnery officer on board the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, and served aboard her when she sank during the Battle of the Coral Sea. He later continued serving as a gunnery officer aboard the USS Birmingham, serving on her throughout many of the raids and invasions she participated in throughout the war. He was promoted to captain in 1945.
  During his postwar years, O'Donnell commanded Destroyer Division 32 and served on the staffs of the Bureau of Ordnance and Commander of Naval Forces in Germany. He then commanded the USS George Clymer in operations off Korea and Japan in 1952 and 1953. O'Donnell next served as commander of the USS New Jersey and was sworn in on March 18, 1955. He also commanded Destroyer Flotilla 6 from June 1956 to October 1957.
  From October 1958 to November 1960, O'Donnell served as Director of the Far East Region under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, then headed by John N. Irwin II. O'Donnell served during the tenures of Secretaries of Defense Neil H. McElroy and Thomas S. Gates Jr. in the Eisenhower administration.
caption: Lexington, abandoned and burning, several hours after being damaged by Japanese airstrikes
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