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This 1946 James Forrestal US Secretary Defense Autograph Commodore McCandless Letter is the exact item you will receive and has been certified Authentic by REM Fine Collectibles.
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense. Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic family. He was a successful financier on Wall Street before becoming Undersecretary of the Navy in 1940, shortly before the United States entered the Second World War. He became Secretary of the Navy in May 1944 upon the death of his superior, Col. Frank Knox.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that Forrestal take the lead in building up the Navy. In 1947, after the end of the war, President Harry S. Truman appointed him the first secretary of the newly created Department of Defense.
Forrestal was a supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. He tried to weaken the proposed Department of Defense for the Navy's benefit, but was hard-pressed to run it from 1947 to 1949 after Truman named him Secretary of Defense. The two men were often at odds, and Truman forced Forrestal's resignation.
In 1954, the USN's new supercarrier was named USS Forrestal in his honor, as is the James V. Forrestal Building, which houses the headquarters of the United States Department of Energy. He is the namesake of the Forrestal Lecture Series at the United States Naval Academy and of the James Forrestal Campus of his alma mater Princeton University.Commodore Byron McCandless (September 5, 1881 – May 30, 1967) was a longtime U.S. Navy officer who was awarded the Navy Cross during World War I and the Legion of Merit during World War II. He was also prominent in the field of vexillology (the study of flags), and helped design two separate versions of the flag of the president of the United States.
He was the father of Bruce McCandless, also a naval officer, and the grandfather of NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II. Commodore McCandless was later promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral on the retired list. Following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1905, McCandless sailed with the Great White Fleet on the USS Maine.
He was a gunnery and turret officer, and later became the flag lieutenant and aide to Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger, the commander of the Atlantic Fleet.
When Admiral William S. Benson became the first Chief of Naval Operations in 1915, he chose McCandless to be on his three-person staff. Later, McCandless also became an aide to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.
During World War I, McCandless commanded the destroyer USS Caldwell, and was awarded the Navy Cross. After the war, McCandless was the executive officer on the battleship USS Kansas. He later commanded the USS Parrott from 1921 to 1923, the oiler USS Brazos in 1927-28, and the cruiser USS Raleigh.
McCandless also commanded Destroyer Division 30 and served as the Operations Officer for Destroyer Squadrons of the Scouting Fleet.
McCandless attended the Naval War College, then became the Director of the Training Division in the Navy's Bureau of Navigation, and later headed the Branch Hydrographic Office in Boston. After completing another course at the Naval War College, he served as the Chief of Staff for Destroyers, Battle Force, from 1935 to 1937.
McCandless became the commanding officer of the Destroyer Base, San Diego, in January 1937. He was transferred to the retired list on June 30, 1940, but remained on active duty and in command. He oversaw an expansion in scope of the base, adding fleet training schools and an amphibious force training unit, and accordingly it was renamed the Repair Base, San Diego, in 1942.
Helped by the addition of several floating dry docks, between 1943 and 1945 the base performed conversion, overhaul, maintenance and battle damage repair to more than 5,000 ships. He remained the commander until the end of the war, leaving on September 8, 1945. For his service at the base, McCandless was awarded the Legion of Merit. He retired on September 25, 1946.
The 'Jeheemy', invented by McCandlessDuring his career, McCandless made several inventions. One of them was the "Jeheemy", an apparatus used to salvage landing craft swamped and stranded on invasion beachheads. It consisted of portable crane hauled along the beach by a tractor. McCandless also patented several other inventions, including a camera and other photographic equipment, a projection system, and a portable lamp.
