Ralph U . Hyde Captain Ralph Underhill Hyde ( 4 August 1894 – 12 May 1970 ) was a career Naval Officer who served in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II . Education and World War I Service . Hyde was born in New York , NY in 1894 . He graduated from the Trinity School in New York City in 1913 , and the U . S . Naval Academy in 1917 , and served aboard the as Gun Division Officer , Signal Officer , and Assistant Navigator , Watch and Division Officer , for the duration of the first world war . Interwar Service . Lieutenant Hyde later served aboard the USS Chicago , the USS Rochester , and the USS Des Moines , before being selected as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to Rear Admiral Henry F . Bryan and later to Rear Admiral C . B . Morgan , Commanders of the Special Service Squadron , aboard the USS Dolphin . He later served aboard the USS Columbia , and the USS Langley when it was commissioned as the Navy ' s first aircraft carrier in March 1922 . In June , 1922 , he married his fiance , Mariquita Penniman , of Quogue , NY . In August , 1922 , he was selected to serve aboard the presidential yacht , the USS Mayflower for two years during the term of President Warren G . Harding , as First Lieutenant , Watch and Division Officer , and Gunnery Officer . Beginning in 1924 , he served aboard the USS Arizona as Communications Officer , followed by a tour as aide to Rear Admiral A . W . Willard , the Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard . In 1928 , as a Lieutenant Commander , he became Executive Officer and Navigator on the destroyer , USS McFarland . And in 1930 , he became Aide and Flag Secretary to Admiral Harley H . Christy on the . After a stint as Officer in charge of Recruiting in Pittsburgh , he served at the Bureau of Navigation at the Navy Department under Admiral Frank B . Upham until 1933 , when he became the commanding officer of the USS Wickes until 1936 , with Lieutenant Milton E . Miles as his Executive Officer , during which time his ship was commended with E ' s for torpedo , depth charges , and gunnery , while operating out of San Diego . During this time , the famous " What - the - Hell " Pennant was created . After this command , Commander Hyde became Assistant to the Commandant of Midshipmen at the U . S . Naval Academy , where he also taught Seamanship and Navigation , and trained Reserve Naval Officers for duty in World War II . World War II Service . In 1943 , he was transferred to the Office of the Commander in Chief at the Pentagon for duty with the Joint Secretariat of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a liaison to the Office of Strategic Services . In 1944 , Captain Hyde traveled to Algiers , North Africa ; Bari , Italy ; Cairo , Egypt ; New Delhi , India ; Chungking , China ; and Colombo , Ceylon to observe OSS activities and coordinate with Area Commanders , reporting back to the Joint Chiefs of Staff . He remained in his post in Naval Intelligence as Secretary of the Joint Intelligence Committee for JCS until he retired in 1947 . Postwar . Captain Hyde met with misfortune after his retirement in 1947 , as his beloved wife , Skeets , died of cancer in November , 1948 , his mother died in May , 1949 , and he and his thirteen - year - old daughter , Betsy , contracted polio in August , 1949 . Although he remarried , he was confined to a wheelchair until his death in 1970 .