Steven A . White Steven Angelo White ( born September 18 , 1928 ) is a retired four - star admiral who served in the United States Navy from 1948 until 1985 . He was the 19th and last Chief of Naval Material . Background . Steven ( “ Steve ” ) Angelo White was born on September 18 , 1928 in Los Angeles , California . The third of four children to Croatian immigrant and retired LA policeman Steven George White ( formerly Stojan Sutalo ) ( c . 1888 - 1951 ) and his wife , Helen née Blanchard , Steven grew up primarily in Tujunga , California . After an early graduation from Verdugo Hills High School in January 1946 , Steve received a scholarship to Occidental College ( with the personal recommendation of the Vice President of Verdugo Hills ) . He left Occidental in early 1948 and , after a brief working hiatus from academia , transferred with a full Naval ROTC scholarship to the University of Southern California to complete his education . Naval career . After several failed attempts to enlist during World War II ( owing to his young age at the time ) , Steven joined the United States Navy Reserve as an enlisted seaman recruit in 1948 . Through his application to and reception of an ROTC scholarship to USC , he commenced his career as an officer . While at USC , he pursued his Bachelor of Arts in International Relations , while simultaneously pursuing his Masters in Political Science . He began work as well on a Law Degree ( though , as his military career progressed and his family life developed apace , he did not complete this degree ) . During his time at USC , he served on three midshipmen cruises : to Panama on the light cruiser Toledo in the summer of 1949 ; for amphibious warfare training in Little Creek , Virginia and Naval aviation training at Pensacola , Florida in the summer of 1950 ; and to Cuba on the Battleship Missouri from Norfolk , VA in the summer of 1951 ( his senior cruise ) . Following Steve ’ s graduation from USC in the summer of 1952 , he was commissioned as an ensign . Steve ’ s first assignment as a commissioned officer was USS Manchester , a cruiser based out of Long Beach , California . Aboard Manchester , Steve took part in her prestigious service during the Korean War : Manchester served on the bomb - line off the east coast of Korea before Steve joined the ship in 1952 , and returned to the bomb - line , with periodic trips to patrol and shell Wonsan , until the war conclusion with the signing of the armistice on July 27 , 1953 . Following Steve ’ s application and acceptance to the submarine program , as well as his promotion to lieutenant , junior grade ( LTJG ) in December 1953 , the Whites relocated to New London , Connecticut , for a six - month training course . At the conclusion of the course , Steve received orders to USS Tang ( SS - 563 ) , then stationed at Pearl Harbor . He served aboard Tang for two years , including lengthy service in and around Japan . In 1956 , when he was seriously considering resigning from the Navy and a return to his Law school ambitions , he first encountered Admiral Hyman G . Rickover , whose Naval nuclear program was then on the brink of blossoming . Steve ’ s first encounter with the “ Father of the Nuclear Navy ” — which consisted of attendance to a lecture given by Rickover in Pearl Harbor in 1956 — inspired Steve to apply for one of the very few openings in Rickover ’ s program . He survived the near - legendary and grueling interview process and , accepted to the program , once again relocated his family to New London to attend the Naval Nuclear Power School in the Naval Submarine Base from June 1956 through December 1956 . Following graduation , the Whites moved to Idaho so Steve could continue his training until May 1957 — this time serving at the nuclear prototype reactor in Arco , Idaho . Steve ’ s first assignment post - training was the illustrious USS Nautilus ( SSN - 571 ) , Admiral Rickover ’ s first nuclear submarine . From the clear May day in 1957 when Steve first climbed aboard Nautilus until he left the ship in mid - 1960 , Steve ’ s experience aboard and love for that ship grew at an exponential rate . From September 1957 through May 1958 , Nautilus made her first attempt to break into the “ no man ’ s land ” of the far Arctic . Her introduction to the forbidding waters of the Arctic was eventful . A first foray — part of a training rendezvous with the diesel sub USS Trigger at the southern end of the icepack , to be followed by participation in “ Operation Strikeback ” , a series of NATO exercises in the North Atlantic — demonstrated to both officers and crew the intensity of the challenge posed by the comparatively uncharted and unpredictable waters under the icepack . Their initial attempt to make a “ run ” for the Pole during their training with Trigger in early September was unsuccessful , owing to unpredicted intensity of underwater ice . After Russian launching of the rocket Sputnik I ( carrying the first manmade earth satellite ) on October 5 , and Sputnik II on November 3 , as well as the United States ’ failed attempt to launch the Vanguard TV3 rocket satellite on December 6 , the desire for comparable technological achievement intensified , particularly in the administration of President Eisenhower . Nautilus successfully completed a transpolar crossing during “ Operation Sunshine ” , conducted June through August 1958 , piercing the pole on August 3 , at 2315 Eastern Daylight Savings Time . This achievement was announced by the legendary TOP SECRET OP - IMMED message : “ Nautilus Ninety North ” , transmitted on August 5 . In the months that followed the PANOPO ( Pacific to Atlantic via NOrth POle ) crossing and until Nautilus entered the Portsmouth , New Hampshire shipyard for her first overhaul in April 1959 , Steve and the other officers served as PR representatives for Nautilus and nuclear power . In January 1960 , before completion of the Nautilus overhaul , Steve received orders to Westinghouse ’ s Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin , Pennsylvania for six weeks of school , thenceafter to serve as Engineer of USS Ethan Allen , named for a Vermont Revolutionary War hero , then under construction with Electric Boat . Shipyard work concluded , Ethan Allen was selected for the live Christmas Island shot — the only complete missile test with an armed warhead ever ordered — in July 1961 . Soon after , Steve received the almost unprecedented honor of being promoted to Executive Officer of the same ship where he had served for two years as Engineer . Training followed at the Fleet Combat Training Center Atlantic ( FTC ) in Dam Neck , Virginia Beach . Aboard Ethan Allen , Steve and his fellow officers and crew experienced first - hand the 1962 tensions of the Cuban Missile Crisis . In the summer of 1964 , Steve received his first shore - duty assignment : to the staff of the Deputy to the Submarine Force Commander Atlantic ( SUBLANT ) . During this time , he unilaterally developed a training program and personal examinations for nuclear submarines . In the summer of 1966 , his next assignment , as commanding officer of USS Pargo ( then under construction by Electric Boat in Groton , Connecticut ) , necessitated several weeks of training at Rickover ’ s CHARM school in Washington , D . C . ( during which time Rickover utilized Steve more as a direct staff - member than allowed time for actual training ) . Command of Pargo brought with it a wide range of intense and fascinating experiences : training and target practice with the Mark 48 torpedo , as well as more under - ice and Arctic explorations . By the summer of 1969 , the Whites were established members of the Groton , Connecticut submarine community . Consequently , Steve ’ s orders to serve as Commander of Division 102 , supervising four submarines , brought the delight of comparative stability to the oft - moving family . This work was followed by relocation to Washington , D . C . , in October 1970 , where Steve served for nearly two years , working directly for Admiral Rickover at Naval Reactors . It was then that he received the prize billet of Commander of the Navy ’ s second Fleet Ballistic Missile ( FBM ) Submarine Squadron in Rota , Spain , which concluded with his promotion to Rear Admiral and assignment as commander of Submarine Group Two , based in Groton . During his next assignment , under Admiral Michaelis in the Office of Naval Materiel ( NAVMAT ) beginning the summer of 1976 , Steve worked to revitalize and reform the branch and establish a group of all material personennel in all of the large organizations through the military structure , coordinating them to function more seamlessly under Michaelis ’ command . This assignment was followed , in the summer of 1978 , with orders to serve under the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations ( OP - 02 ) , in charge of Submarine Warfare . In May 1980 , Steve received promotion to three stars and assignment to serve as COMSUBLANT . During his COMSUBLANT tenure , he created the Tactical Readiness Evaluation ( TRE ) program , reconstructed war plans for interactions with the Soviet Union at a critical moment ( taking into consideration their bastions for ballistic submarines ) , and transformed the program for negotiating the pace of operation and calculating “ home port ” time for officers and crew ( converting OPTEMPO to PERSTEMPO ) . He also took great pride in introducing Admiral Rickover on November 11 , 1981 at the commissioning of USS " Ohio " ( SSBN 726 ) — an event which took place shortly before Rickover ’ s retirement . In May 1983 , he received his final assignment in the United States Navy : promotion to four stars and return to NAVMAT , this time as Chief . He aggressively pursued ( and enforced ) fiscal responsibility and reform as Chief of NAVMAT . Manager of nuclear power , Tennessee Valley Authority . Following his retirement from the Navy in July 1985 , Steve worked as a part - time contractor and adviser for various companies ( with the codicil that he refused ever to work on anything that might overlap with his military career and thereby produce a conflict of interest ) . Later that year he agreed to take on the weighty challenge of the nuclear power division of the Tennessee Valley Authority ( TVA ) . In the three years he worked for TVA , he successfully cleaned out pervasive personnel problems , revitalized the deeply conflicted program , and laid the ground work for the resumption of nuclear power supply : TVA ’ s Sequoyah PWR Unit 1 resumed full functionality on November 10 , 1988 . At the same time , he successfully combatted political questions , allegations that he had broken conflict of interest laws , death threats , and the personal discomfort of negative press . All charges were completely dismissed . He retired from TVA in November 1988 , despite flattering efforts on the part of the Board of Directors to persuade him to remain , and left with the agency ’ s full praise . For a short time after leaving TVA , Steve worked once again as a contractor , serving Lockheed Martin Corporation and EBASCO services . Retirement . In 2004 he joined 120 other retired US flag officers in signing an open letter that condemned John Kerry ' s vote against a funding bill for US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq . He appeared at the 2004 Republican National Convention to endorse the reelection of president George Bush . He did not endorse McCain in the 2008 election . Family . Steve married Mary Anne Landreau on January 27 , 1951 . The Whites have seven children , thirty - five grandchildren , seven grandchildren - in - law , and eleven great - grandchildren ( and counting ) .