John Henry Towers John Henry Towers ( January 30 , 1885 – April 30 , 1955 ) was a United States Navy admiral and pioneer naval aviator . He made important contributions to the technical and organizational development of naval aviation from its very beginnings , eventually serving as Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics ( 1939 – 1942 ) . He commanded carrier task forces during World War II , and retired in December 1947 . He and Marc Mitscher were the only early Naval Aviation pioneers to survive the extreme hazards of early flight to remain with naval aviation throughout their careers . He was the first naval aviator to achieve flag rank and was the most senior advocate for naval aviation during a time when the Navy was dominated by battleship admirals . Towers spent his last years supporting aeronautical research and advising the aviation industry . Early life and career . Towers was born on 30 January 1885 at Rome , Georgia . He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the Class of 1906 , and was commissioned ensign in 1908 while serving aboard the battleship . He was later assigned to the battleship before reporting to the Curtiss Flying School in Hammondsport , New York , on June 27 , 1911 for aviation training . Pioneer naval aviator . Under the tutelage of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and Lieutenant Theodore G . Ellyson , Towers qualified as a pilot in August 1911 , flying the Navy ' s first airplane , a Curtiss A - 1 seaplane . Towers next traveled to North Island in San Diego , California where , in conjunction with the Curtiss Flying School , he took part in developing and improving naval aircraft types . In October 1911 , Towers achieved a distance record , flying an A - 1 from Annapolis , Maryland , to Old Point Comfort , Virginia , a distance of 112 miles in 122 minutes . In the fall of 1912 , Towers supervised the establishment of the Navy ' s first aviation unit , based at Annapolis . On October 6 , 1912 , he achieved an American endurance record by rigging extra gasoline tanks to a Curtiss A - 2 seaplane , allowing him to remain aloft for 6 hours , ten minutes , 35 seconds . From October to December 1912 , Towers conducted tests to spot submerged submarines from the air over the Chesapeake Bay . He furthered those tests into 1913 during fleet operations near Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . Additionally , he investigated the potential for Navy aerial reconnaissance , bombing , photography , and communications . On 8 May 1913 , Lt . Towers flew a long - distance flight of 169 miles in a Curtiss flying boat from the Washington Navy Yard down the Potomac River and then up the Chesapeake Bay to the U . S . Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland . The flight took three hours and five minutes . Ensign Godfrey Chevalier was his passenger . On 20 June 1913 , Towers was nearly killed in an aviation mishap over the Chesapeake Bay . While he was flying as a passenger in a Wright seaplane , his plane was caught in a sudden downdraft and plummeted earthward . The pilot , Ensign W . D . Billingsley , was thrown from the aircraft and killed ( becoming the first naval aviation fatality ) . Towers also was wrenched from his seat but managed to catch a wing strut and stay with the plane until it crashed into the Chesapeake . Interviewed by Glenn Curtiss soon thereafter , Towers recounted the circumstances of the tragedy ; his report and resultant recommendations eventually led to the design and adoption of safety belts and harnesses for pilots and their passengers . On 20 January 1914 , Lieutenant Towers led 9 officers and 23 enlisted men , with 7 aircraft , portable hangars and other gear from the aviation unit at Annapolis to Pensacola , Fla to set up the first naval aviation training unit . Then on April 20 , 1914 , Towers led the first naval aviation unit called into action with the Fleet . He and two other pilots , 12 enlisted men and three aircraft sailed from Pensacola aboard the cruiser in response to the Tampico Affair Naval aviator designation and insignia . In January 1915 , the Navy decided to officially designate its flyers . At that time , Towers was officially designated as Naval Aviator No . 3 , with an effective date of 1914 . Lieutenant Commander Towers , while assigned to the aviation desk under CNO , is credited with the development of the Naval Aviators badge , which were designed and ordered in 1917 . On January 19 , 1918 , distribution of the first gold Naval Aviator wings began , and it is likely that Towers , as Senior Naval Aviator in Washington at the time , was an early , if not the earliest , recipient . World War I . In August 1914 , shortly after the war began , Towers was ordered to London as assistant naval attaché — - a billet he filled until he returned to the United States in the autumn of 1916 . That August Lieutenant Towers accompanied the U . S . Relief Expedition aboard the USS " Tennessee " ( ACR - 10 ) as part of the naval delegation led by Commander Reginald R . Belknap , with overall command by Assistant Secretary of the Army Henry S . Breckinridge . Subsequently , Towers advocated for the First Yale Unit , which would become the core of naval aviation ' s participation in the war . In May 1917 , Lieutenant Commander Towers was ordered to the Bureau of Navigation as Supervisor of the Naval Reserve Flying Corp , a precursor to the Naval Air Reserve Force . When the Navy established the Division of Aviation , at Navy Department headquarters , Towers was appointed Assistant Director of Naval Aviation . There , he orchestrated the build up from a handful of obsolete aircraft and less than 50 pilots to a force of thousands of aircraft and aviators . Interwar years , 1919 – 1939 . During the interwar years , Towers was the leading advocate of Naval Aviation ( and especially carrier aviation ) when there was virtually no other support within or outside of the navy . He was involved in a number of pioneering developments in Naval Aviation , including the first transatlantic crossing by aircraft ; serving as commander of the first U . S . aircraft carrier , ; and holding important positions ( including bureau chief ) within the Bureau of Aeronautics ( BuAer ) , the organizational structure established for Naval Aviation in 1921 . Transatlantic crossing : Flight of NC - 4 , 1919 . In 1919 , then - Commander Towers proposed , planned and led the first air crossing of the Atlantic . Planning for the mission actually began during the early years of World War I , when Allied shipping was threatened by submarine warfare , but could not be accomplished prior to the war ' s end . The flying expedition began on 8 May 1919 when three Curtiss NC Flying Boats , designated NC - 1 , NC - 3 and NC - 4 , left Naval Air Station Rockaway , New York , The aircraft made intermediate stops in Cape Cod , Massachusetts , Chatham , Massachusetts and Halifax , Nova Scotia before reaching Trepassey , Newfoundland on 15 May 1919 . On 16 May they left for the longest leg of their journey , to the Azores . NC - 1 and the NC - 3 were both forced to land in heavy seas due to dense fog , and neither could take off again . NC - 1 subsequently began taking on water and the crew was rescued by the Greek freighter Ionia . The crew of the NC - 3 , including Towers , managed to keep the NC - 3 afloat for 52 hours , water taxiing the craft over 200 miles to Punta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island . NC - 4 went on to complete the transatlantic crossing , arriving at Lisbon on 27May . For his leadership in the operation , Towers was awarded the Navy Cross . Ten years later , Towers and the flight crew of NC - 4 were awarded Congressional Gold Medals . Sea and shore assignments , 1920s and 1930s . Between the autumn of 1919 and the late winter of 1922 and 1923 , Towers served at sea — as the executive officer of USS and as the commanding officer of the old destroyer USS , which had been redesignated an aircraft tender . Then , after a tour as executive officer at NAS Pensacola , he spent two and one - half years — from March 1923 to September 1925 — as an assistant naval attaché , serving at the American embassies at London , Paris , Rome , the Hague , and Berlin . Returning to the United States in the autumn of 1925 , he was assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics and served as a member of the court of inquiry which investigated the loss of dirigible . Towers next commanded USS , the Navy ' s first aircraft carrier , from January 1927 to August 1928 . He received a commendation for " coolness and courage in the face of danger " when a gasoline line caught fire and burned on board the carrier in December 1927 . Towers personally led the vigorous and successful effort to suppress the flames kindled by the explosion and thus averted a catastrophe . After shore duty in the Bureau of Aeronautics , Towers successively served as head of the plans division and later , as assistant bureau chief . Towers joined the staff of the Commander , Aircraft , Battle Force , under Rear Admiral Harry E . Yarnell , in June 1931 . He was among the staff which planned a successful " attack " on Pearl Harbor during the Joint Army - Navy Exercise No . 4 in the Hawaiian Islands in February 1932 — an operation which was to be duplicated on a larger scale by the Japanese in December 1941 . Between June 1933 and June 1939 , Towers filled a variety of billets ashore and afloat : he completed the senior course at the Naval War College in 1934 ; commanded the Naval Air Station at San Diego ; again served on the staff of ComAirBatFor ; commanded USS ; and became Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics . On 1 June 1939 , he was named Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics with the accompanying rank of rear admiral . World War II . As Aeronautics Bureau chief , Towers organized the Navy ' s aircraft procurement plans while war clouds gathered over the Far East and in the Atlantic . Under his leadership , the air arm of the Navy grew from 2 , 000 planes in 1939 to 39 , 000 in 1942 . He also instituted a rigorous pilot - training program and established a trained group of reserve officers for ground support duties . During Towers ' tenure , the number of men assigned to naval aviation activities reached a high point of some three quarters of a million . World War II operational commands . Promoted to vice admiral on 6 October 1942 , Towers became Commander , Air Force , Pacific Fleet . From this billet , he supervised the development , organization , training , and supply of the Fleet ' s growing aviation capability , and helped develop the strategy which spelled the doom of the Japanese fleet and eventual American victory in the Pacific . For his " sound judgment and keen resourcefulness " , Towers received , successively , the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Service Medal . Towers was subsequently promoted to the dual position of Deputy Commander - in - Chief , Pacific Ocean Area ( DCINCPOA ) and Deputy Commander - in - Chief , Pacific Fleet ( DCINCPAC ) . In this capacity , he served as Admiral Chester Nimitz ' s chief advisor on naval aviation policy , fleet logistics , and administration matters . In August 1945 , Towers was given command of the Second Carrier Task Force and Task Force 38 , Pacific Fleet . On 7 November 1945 , he broke his flag aboard the battleship USS as Commander , 5th Fleet . On 1 February 1946 , he made the carrier USS his flagship as Commander in Chief , Pacific Fleet , a post he held until March 1947 . In 1946 , President Truman signed the first Outline Command Plan ( now known as the Unified Command Plan ) that called for the establishment of several joint or unified commands . On 1 January 1947 , the new United States Pacific Command stood up as one of the first unified commands with Admiral Towers as its first commander . He served as the commander of Pacific Command for only two months before being reassigned : 1 January 1947 - 28 February 1947 . Admiral Towers was dual - hatted as both Commander in Chief , Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief , Pacific Command . Post - war service and retirement . After chairing the Navy ' s General Board from March to December 1947 , Towers retired on 1 December 1947 . After retirement , Towers served as President of the Pacific War Memorial , as assistant to the President of Pan American World Airways , and as President of the Flight Safety Council . Admiral Towers died in St . Albans ' Hospital , Jamaica , New York , on 30 April 1955 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Honors . In 1961 , Towers was posthumously designated the second recipient of the Gray Eagle Award , as the most senior active naval aviator from 1928 until his retirement . He was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966 , the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 1973 , the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor in 1981 and the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame in 2004 . Namesakes . , a guided missile destroyer that saw action in the Vietnam War , was named in his honor . A crater on the moon was named in his honor by the Apollo 17 Mission Towers Field at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Jacksonville , Florida is named for him as is the air field at Richard B . Russell Regional Airport , Rome , Georgia .