Thomas Howard

Highlights of the admiral’s career were: when he served as gunnery officer in the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) during many crucial engagements in the Pacific (1944-1945); when he served in destroyers, first as skipper of the USS Compton (DD-705), then as commander of a destroyer division, and later as commander of the famous Destroyer Squadron 23; when he served with Admiral R. Kelly Turner on the United Nations’ Staff Committee (1945-1947); and when he served as Commander, Naval Weapons Laboratory at Dahlgren, Virginia (1960-1961). He later became disillusioned in assignments at the Pentagon during the McNamara regime and tells of his dealings with the ＂Whiz Kids＂ before his retirement in 1964.