Editing Elmo Zumwalt (section)

==Naval career==
===Naval Academy and World War II===
Zumwalt had planned to become a doctor like his parents, but in 1939, he was accepted to the [[United States Naval Academy]] (USNA) at [[Annapolis, Maryland]]. As a [[midshipman]] at the USNA, he was president of the Trident Society, vice president of the Quarterdeck Society and the two-time winner of the June Week Public Speaking Contest (1940–41). Zumwalt also participated in intercollegiate debating and was a Company Commander (1941) and Regimental Three Striper (1942). He graduated with distinction and was [[Commissioned officer|commissioned]] as an [[ensign (rank)|ensign]] on June 19, 1942. He also received an honorary degree from [[Texas Tech]] University.

Zumwalt was assigned to {{USS|Phelps|DD-360|6}}, a destroyer. In August 1943, ''Phelps'' was detached for instruction in the Operational Training Command-Pacific in San Francisco. In January 1944, Zumwalt reported for duty on board {{USS|Robinson|DD-562|6}}. On this ship, he was awarded the [[Bronze Star Medal]] with [[Valor device]] for "heroic service as Evaluator in the Combat Information Center ... in action against enemy Japanese battleships during the [[Battle for Leyte Gulf]], October 25, 1944".

After the end of World War II in August 1945, Zumwalt continued to serve until December 8, 1945, as the [[prize crew]] officer of the [[Japanese gunboat Ataka|''Ataka'']], a 1,200-ton Japanese river [[gunboat]] with a crew of 200. In this capacity, he took the first American-controlled ship since the outbreak of World War II up the [[Huangpu River]] to [[Shanghai]], China. There, they helped to restore order and assisted in disarming the Japanese.

===Command assignments===
Zumwalt next served as [[executive officer]] of the destroyer {{USS|Saufley|DD-465|6}}, and in March 1946, was transferred to the destroyer {{USS|Zellars|DD-777|6}}, as executive officer and navigator.

In January 1948, Zumwalt was assigned to the [[Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps]] unit of the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina]], where he remained until June 1950. That same month, he assumed command of {{USS|Tills|DE-748|6}}, a destroyer escort that was commissioned in a reserve status. The ''Tills'' was placed in full active commission at [[Charleston Naval Shipyard]] on November 21, 1950, and he continued to command her until March 1951, when he joined the battleship {{USS|Wisconsin|BB-64|6}} as navigator and served with the ship in operations in Korea.

Detached from USS ''Wisconsin'' in June 1952, he attended the [[Naval War College]], [[Newport, Rhode Island]], and in June 1953, he reported as head of the Shore and Overseas Bases Section, [[Bureau of Naval Personnel]], Navy Department, [[Washington, D.C.]] He also served as officer and enlisted requirements officer, and as action officer on Medicare legislation. Completing that tour of duty in July 1955, he assumed command of the destroyer {{USS|Arnold J. Isbell|DD-869|6}}, participating in two deployments with the [[United States Seventh Fleet]]. In this assignment, he was commended by the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Forces, [[United States Pacific Fleet]], for winning the Battle Efficiency Competition for his ship and for winning Excellence Awards in Engineering, Gunnery, Anti-Submarine Warfare, and Operations. In July 1957, he returned to the Bureau of Naval Personnel for further duty. In December 1957, he was transferred to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Personnel and Reserve Forces), and served as special assistant for naval personnel until November 1958, then as special assistant and naval aide until August 1959.

Ordered to the first ship built from the keel up as a [[guided missile frigate]], {{USS|Dewey|DLG-14|6}}, built at the [[Bath Iron Works|Bath (Maine) Iron Works]], he assumed command of that frigate at her commissioning in December 1959, and commanded it until June 1961. During the period of his command, ''Dewey'' earned the Excellence Award in Engineering, Supply, Weapons, and was runner-up in the Battle Efficiency Competition. He was a student at the [[National War College]], Washington, D.C., during the 1961–1962 class year. In June 1962, he was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs), Washington, D.C., where he served first as desk officer for France, Spain, and Portugal, then as director of arms control and contingency planning for Cuba. From December 1963 until June 21, 1965, he served as executive assistant and senior aide to the Honorable [[Paul Nitze|Paul H. Nitze]], [[Secretary of the Navy]]. For duty in his tour in the offices of the [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] and the Secretary of the Navy, he was awarded the [[Legion of Merit]].

===Flag assignments===
====Vietnam====
After his selection for the rank of [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]], Zumwalt assumed command of Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Seven on 24 July 1965 in San Diego.<ref>Berman, Zumwalt, 154</ref> He then served as Director, Systems Analysis Division, OPNAV (OP-96) from August 1966 to August 1968.<ref>Berman, Zumwalt, 433.</ref> In September 1968, he became Commander [[Naval Forces Vietnam]] and Chief of the Naval Advisory Group, United States [[Military Assistance Command Vietnam]] (MACV) and was promoted to vice admiral in October 1968. Zumwalt was the Navy adviser to General [[Creighton Abrams]], Commander, MACV. Zumwalt always spoke very highly of Abrams, and said that Abrams was the most caring officer he had ever known.

Zumwalt's command was not a [[blue-water navy|blue-water]] force, like the Seventh Fleet; it was a [[brown-water navy|brown-water]] unit: he commanded the flotilla of [[Fast Patrol Craft|Swift Boats]] that patrolled the coasts, harbors, and rivers of Vietnam. Among the swift-boat commanders were his son Elmo Russell Zumwalt III and later future senator and secretary of state [[John Kerry]]. Among his other forces were Task Force 115, the Coastal Surveillance Force, Task Force 116, the River Patrol Force and Task Force 117, the joint Army-Navy [[Mobile Riverine Force]].<ref>Berman, Zumwalt, 171</ref>

====Chief of Naval Operations====
[[File:Warner cunningham driscoll zumwalt.jpg|thumb|L-R [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] [[John Warner]], [[Duke Cunningham|Randall "Duke" Cunningham]], [[William P. Driscoll|William Driscoll]], and CNO Zumwalt.]]
President [[Richard Nixon]] nominated Zumwalt to be [[Chief of Naval Operations]] in April 1970. Upon being relieved as Commander Naval Forces Vietnam on May 15, 1970, he was awarded a second [[Navy Distinguished Service Medal]] for exceptionally meritorious service.

Zumwalt assumed duties as Chief of Naval Operations and was promoted to full admiral on July 1, 1970, and quickly began a series of moves intended to reduce racism and sexism in the Navy. These were disseminated in Navy-wide communications known as "Z-grams". These included orders authorizing beards (sideburns, mustaches, and longer groomed hair were also acceptable) and introducing beer-dispensing machines to barracks.

Zumwalt instituted the 'Mod Squad'—[[Destroyer Squadron 26]] and later 31—to give promising young officers early command experience. Billets were a rank lower than normal.

Zumwalt reshaped the Navy's effort to replace large numbers of aging World War II-era vessels, a plan called "High-Low". Instituted over the resistance of Admiral [[Hyman Rickover]] and others, High-Low sought to balance the purchase of high-end, nuclear-powered vessels with low-end, cheaper ones—such as the [[Sea Control Ship]]—that could be bought in greater numbers. Rickover, the 'Father of the Nuclear Navy', preferred buying a few major ships to buying many ordinary ones. Zumwalt proposed four kinds of warships to fit the plan; in the end, only the {{Sclass|Pegasus|hydrofoil|4}} of missile patrol boats and the {{Sclass|Oliver Hazard Perry|frigate|0}} of [[guided missile frigate]]s became reality, and only six of the planned 100+ ''Pegasus''-class [[hydrofoil]]s were built. The ''Oliver Hazard Perry'' class stood as the most numerous class of United States' warships since World War II until the advent of the {{Sclass|Arleigh Burke|destroyer}}s. Zumwalt was the last Chief of Naval Operations to live at [[Number One Observatory Circle]] before it became the official residence of the [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]]. For Zumwalt, not pleased with the choice, this was reason enough to challenge Virginia Senator [[Harry F. Byrd Jr.]] in the 1976 Senate election in Virginia.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Barbara Bush: A Memoir|author=Bush, B.|date=2010|publisher=Scribner|isbn=9781451603958|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0qdrPsi0eEC}}</ref>

Elmo Zumwalt Jr. retired from the Navy on July 1, 1974, aged 53.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Admiral Elmo R. ("Bud") Zumwalt, Jr., USN (1920-2000) 19th Chief of Naval Operations, 1 July 1970 – 1 July 1974 |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-people/z/zumwalt--elmo-r---jr-.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602010404/https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-people/z/zumwalt--elmo-r---jr-.html |archive-date=June 2, 2023 |access-date=March 13, 2024 |website=NHHC |language=en-US}}</ref>