Charles M . Cooke , Jr . Admiral Charles Maynard " Savvy " Cooke , Jr . , USN ( 19 December 1886 – 24 December 1970 ) , was a United States Navy four star admiral who saw service in World War I and World War II and later served as Commander , United States Seventh Fleet ( COMSEVENTHFLT ) from 1946 to 1947 and Commander , U . S . Naval Forces , Western Pacific ( COMNAVWESPAC ) from 1947 to 1948 . Biography . Cooke was born in Fort Smith , Arkansas , on 19 December 1886 . In 1906 , after receiving a degree from the University of Arkansas , he entered the United States Naval Academy , graduating second in the Class of 1910 . Between then and 1913 , during which time he was commissioned as an ensign , Cooke served in the battleship s , , and . He then received submarine instruction and , as a lieutenant , junior grade , took command of the submarine . From 1916 to 1918 , he was assigned to shipyard inspection duty at Quincy , Massachusetts . Promoted to lieutenant in June 1917 and receiving a wartime temporary promotion to lieutenant commander in July 1918 , he supervised the outfitting of the submarine and became her commanding officer when she was commissioned in January 1919 . In 1919 and 1920 , Lieutenant Commander Cooke repeated the process for the larger submarine , distinguishing himself when she accidentally sank on 1 September 1920 by saving the lives of 37 men trapped in her wreck . During the remainder of the 1920s , he was executive officer of the submarine tender , had shore duty at the Cavite and Mare Island Navy Yard s , was gunnery officer of the battleship , and served at the United States Department of the Navy in Washington , D . C . . From 1931 to 1933 , Commander Cooke commanded a submarine division , attended the Naval War College Senior Course , was Commandant of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , had further Navy Department duty and was war plans and logistics officer with the United States Fleet staff . Promoted to captain in June 1938 , Cooke soon returned to Washington , D . C . , for duty with the Chief of Naval Operations war plans staff . He took command of the battleship in February 1941 , saw her through the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , that brought the United States into World War II , and remained with her into 1942 . By then a rear admiral , Cooke became the principal planning officer for Admiral Ernest J . King , who was both Commander in Chief , U . S . Fleet , and Chief of Naval Operations . He played a vital role on Kings staff as a brilliant strategist until after the end of World War II in 1945 , serving as Chief of Naval Plans and as Advocate for Naval Management of War in Pacific and working on issues related to the Navys transition from a battleship - centered orientation to one focused on aircraft carrier task force s . He was present at Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 , and finished the war as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations with the rank of vice admiral . Between the end of 1945 and early 1948 , as an admiral , Cooke commanded the Seventh Fleet and Naval Forces , Western Pacific , also serving as naval consultant to the Republic of Chinas leader , Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek . Cooke retired from the Navy at the beginning of May 1948 . Personal . Cooke was married to the former Mary Louise Cooper ( 1887 - 1976 ) . In retirement he made his home in Sonoma County , California . Death . Cooke died in Palo Alto , California , on 24 December 1970 . He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington , Virginia .