Olaf M . Hustvedt Olaf Mandt Hustvedt ( 23 June 1886 – 22 December 1978 ) was a vice admiral of the United States Navy . He saw service in World War I and during World War II served in both the Battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific War . During his 36 - year career , he distinguished himself as an expert in naval ordnance and as a battleship commander . Naval career . Hustvedt was born in Chicago , Illinois , on 23 June 1886 . He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1909 . His first tour of duty was aboard the armored cruiser , in which he cruised from the United States West Coast to many ports in East Asia . He then attended George Washington University in Washington , D . C . , from which he received a master of science degree in 1914 . In 1914 , Hustvedt reported for duty aboard the battleship . In 1916 , he became a member of the staff of Commander , Battleship Division 6 . World War I . During World War I , Hustvedt served aboard the battleship before transferring in 1918 to the battleship as " Oklahoma " s gunnery officer . Both battleships saw service in European waters during the war , with " New York " operating with other American battleships of Battleship Division 9 as the 6th Battle Squadron of the Royal Navy s Grand Fleet and with " Oklahoma " seeing service escorting Allied convoys . Interwar . In 1919 , Hustvedt became Chief of the Experimental Division at the U . S . Navys Bureau of Ordnance in Washington , D . C . During his tour , he was among the U . S . Navy observers of United States Army Air Service Brigadier General Billy Mitchell s against decommissioned American battleships in Chesapeake Bay in September 1921 . He also played a role in giving rocket pioneer Dr . Robert Goddard his first U . S . government contract and approved a contract for Carl Norden to work on the famous Norden bombsight for the Navy . Hustvedt was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1921 , when he became commanding officer of the light minelayer . In 1924 he returned to the Bureau of Ordnance . He was assigned to the batteship in 1927 , then transferred in 1928 to the battleship as the gunnery officer of a battleship division of the Battle Fleet . He moved on in 1930 to duty at the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington , D . C . In 1933 , Hustvedt was promoted to commander and became executive officer of the heavy cruiser , then moved to the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington , D . C . , in 1935 . In 1938 he was promoted to captain and took command of the light cruiser . In 1939 he joined the staff of the Commander , Battle Force , United States Fleet , Admiral James O . Richardson , serving aboard Richardsons flagship , the battleship , as Richardsons operations officer before reporting to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn , New York , to oversee the fitting out of the new battleship . He became " North Carolina " s first commanding officer upon her commissioning on 9 April 1941 . On 23 October 1941 , Hustvedt became chief of staff for the Commander - in - Chief , United States Atlantic Fleet , Admiral Ernest J . King . At some point during the interwar period , Hustvedt attended the Naval War College . World War II . Atlantic Theater . After the United States entered World War II on 7 December 1941 , Hustvedt remained Kings chief of staff until King became Commander - in - Chief , United States Fleet , on 30 December 1941 , then continued his duties as chief of staff for the Atlantic Fleet when Vice Admiral Royal E . Ingersoll became the Fleets commander - in - chief on 1 January 1942 . Hustvedt remained Ingersolls chief of staff until 8 May 1943 , when he was promoted to rear admiral and became Commander , Battleships , Atlantic Fleet . In his new assignment , Hustvedt , with the heavy cruiser as his flagship , also commanded a U . S . Navy task force centered around the battleships and which operated with the Royal Navy s Home Fleet from the Home Fleets base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands , cruising along the coast of Norway in the hope of luring the German battleship " Tirpitz " out into a battle from her base in a Norwegian fjord . " Tirpitz " did not come out , and the American battleships departed in August 1943 for the Pacific Theater for operations against the Japan ese . Hustvedt remained with the U . S . Navy forces at Scapa Flow . In October 1943 in Operation Leader , an Allied task force under the command of British Admiral Bruce Fraser made up of the British battleships and , three British cruiser s , six British destroyers , and Hustvedts U . S . Navy force consisting of the aircraft carrier , " Tuscaloosa " , and a destroyer division , approached the coast of Norway with a goal of conducting air raids against German shipping at the port of Bodø . " Ranger " s aircraft made two attacks on 4 October 1943 , the first one damaging two German ships in a convoy in the North Sea before continuing to Bodø and sinking two small German merchant ships there in exchange for the loss of two aircraft , while the second strike sank a large merchant ship and a small coastal merchantman at Bodø and forced another large cargo ship to beach herself with heavy damage , losing three planes in the process . When three German aircraft later approached the Allied task force in the North Sea , " Ranger " s combat air patrol immediately shot two of them down . Hustvedt commented that Operation Leader had demonstrated that Royal Navy and U . S . Navy ships and aircraft could operate together with " effectiveness , mutual understanding , and complete cooperation . " Pacific Theater . Hustvedt soon transferred to the Pacific , where on 1 November 1943 he took command of Battleship Division 7 , consisting of the Navys two newest battleships , , which served as Hustvedts flagship , and . Hustvedts first major Pacific action was Operation Flintlock , the American invasion of the Marshall Islands in January and February 1944 , during which Battleship Division 7 was part of the escort of Task Group 58 . 3 ( Carrier Task Group 3 ) . During Flintlock , Hustvedt participated in Operation Hailstone , a U . S . Navy combined surface and air attack on the major Japanese base at Truk Atoll on 17 – 18 February 1944 . Detached from Task Group 50 . 3 , his two battleships served as the center of Task Force 50 . 9 when it conducted a cruise around Truk under the command of Admiral Raymond A . Spruance on 17 February to intercept Japanese ships fleeing U . S . Navy airstrikes against the atoll . Late in the morning that day , a lone Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero ( Allied reporting name " Zeke " ) dropped a bomb close aboard " Iowa " alongside the bridge wing where Hustvedt was eating lunch ; his reaction was simply to say " That was " my " bomb " and continue eating . His two battleships went on to cripple the Japanese destroyer " Maikaze " – which was finished off by accompanying heavy cruisers – and to straddle the Japanese destroyer " Nowaki " at the extreme range of 34 , 000 to 39 , 000 yards ( 10 , 363 to 11 , 887 meters ) , although " Nowaki " escaped without damage and managed to fire a torpedo which passed close to " New Jersey " across her bow . Hustvedt also commanded Battleship Division 7 during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 . During the action , his two battleships were among those assigned to Vice Admiral Willis A . Lee s Task Group 58 . 7 ( Battle Line ) , which served as an antiaircraft screen against Japanese aircraft attempting to overfly the battleships on their way to strike at the American aircraft carrier force . Admiral Spruance , in overall command , canceled his original plan to send the battleships forward in pursuit of the Japanese fleet after the virtual destruction of Japanese air power in the area , so no surface engagement took place . Later career . Later in 1944 , Hustvedt returned to Washington , D . C . , where he became a member of the General Board of the United States Navy on 24 October 1944 . He served in this capacity until he retired from the Navy in 1946 , being promoted to vice admiral upon retirement . Hustvedts career as a battleship officer had been a promising one and he had a good reputation prior to World War II . The rise of the aircraft carrier to dominance in naval warfare during that war left him with little opportunity to demonstrate his capabilities as a combat leader and prevented his possible emergence as a major World War II naval commander . Awards . Hustvedt received two awards of the Legion of Merit during his career . In addition , the United Kingdom awarded him the Order of the British Empire . Personal life . Hustvedt was married to Irene C . Hustvedt ( 1894 - 1990 ) . A son , Erling H . Hustvedt ( 1919 - 2001 ) , entered the U . S . Naval Academy in 1937 and , although dropped from the academy due to an incorrect evaulation of his eyesight , went on to become a Navy officer , seeing extensive service during World War II . A grandson , Frederick Hauck ( b . 1941 ) , became a U . S . Navy officer , fighter pilot , and astronaut in the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Space Shuttle Program . Death . Hustvedt died of heart disease at his home in Washington , D . C . , on 22 December 1978 . He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington , Virginia .