page_title: Jerauld Wright
section_title: Sea duty
hierarchical_section_title: Jerauld Wright / Naval career / Inter-war service / Sea duty
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Castine (PG-6) photographed in a harbor. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Navy photo NH 67522.
context_page_description: Admiral Jerauld Wright was an officer in the United States Navy. He served as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Atlantic Command and the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet, and became the second Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, from April 1, 1954, to March 1, 1960, serving longer in these three positions than anyone else in history.
  Following World War I, Wright served as a naval aide for Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. A recognized authority on naval gunnery, Wright served in the European and Pacific theaters during World War II, developing expertise in amphibious warfare and coalition warfare planning. After the war, Wright was involved in the evolution of the military structure of NATO as well as overseeing the modernization and readiness of the United States Atlantic Fleet during the Cold War.
  Upon his retirement from the navy, Wright subsequently served on the Central Intelligence Agency's National Board of Estimates and as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of China.
context_section_description: Wright served on USS Dyer, a Wickes-class destroyer, as a watch and division officer from December 1918 to July 1920. Dyer showed the flag in port visits to Gibraltar, La Spezia, Venice, Trieste, Spoleto, Corfu, and Constantinople during a nine-month cruise of the Mediterranean following the signing of the Armistice ending World War I.  Following Dyer's return August 1919, Wright supervised her overhaul at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Lt. Wright also briefly commanded the Paul Jones, a Clemson-class destroyer, which escorted the presidential yacht Mayflower, with President Warren G. Harding on board, from Gardiner's Bay, New York, to the Capes. In October 1920, Lt. Wright took command of USS Reid, Clemson-class destroyer anchored in reserve at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, for transfer to Charleston, South Carolina. Later, in February 1922, Lt. Wright joined USS Breese, a Wickes-class destroyer slated for decommissioning at the Mare Island Navy Yard, serving as its executive officer.
  In June 1922, Wright joined USS John D. Ford, a Clemson-class destroyer, as its executive officer, with additional duties as fire control officer and navigator. John D. Ford set sail from the Philadelphia Navy Yard with its sister ships of Squadron 15, Division 3, for the U.S. Asiatic Fleet. The John D. Ford operated throughout the Far East, including the South China Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Philippines, showing the flag and training with other destroyers in the fleet.
  In July 1926, Lt. Wright joined the USS Maryland, a Colorado-class battleship, as the principal assistant of the ship's Gunnery Division.  In November 1928, the Maryland took President-elect Herbert Hoover on the outbound leg of his goodwill tour of Latin America.  Wright also furthered his hands-on education of gunnery and ordnance while serving as an instructor at the Gunnery School on the battleship Colorado. Commander Wright joined USS Salt Lake City, a Pensacola-class cruiser attached to the Scouting Force, as its first lieutenant in August 1931 and later became the ship's gunnery officer from June 1932 to June 1934.  The Salt Lake City participated in naval exercises in the Atlantic and Pacific, underwent a major overhaul and participated in the 1934 Naval Review.
  Wright's first sea command was USS Blue, a Bagley-class destroyer, with Wright serving as its first commanding officer from July 1937 to May 1939. The Blue completed its shakedown cruise, transitted the Panama Canal, and joined the Destroyer Division 7 (DesRon 7) as its flagship, becoming a unit of the Battle Force based at the San Diego Naval Base, California.  The Blue participated in Fleet Problem XX exercises staged in the Caribbean Sea.
  Wright's final pre-war sea assignment was as the executive officer of USS Mississippi, a New Mexico-class battleship based at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in the Territory of Hawaii, from March 1941 to May 1942.  The Mississippi became a unit of Battleship Division 3 (BatDiv 3) with sister ships New Mexico and Idaho. Following the Bismarck incident and the growing U-boat threat, Battleship Division 3 was secretly shifted to the newly reconstituted U.S. Atlantic Fleet, under the command of Admiral Ernest J. King, entering the Norfolk Naval Base in June 1941. Mississippi was present at the Atlantic Conference at Argentia, participated in the Neutrality Patrol, and joined the Idaho and the British battleship HMS King George V to form an Iceland-based fleet in being to deter the German battleship Tirpitz from deploying into the north Atlantic to threaten Allied convoys. After months of operations in the North Atlantic, Mississippi was en route to Norfolk for long overdue repairs two days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
caption: USS Castine
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