Harry D. Felt - Vice Chief of Naval Operations

Vice Chief of Naval Operations

Promoted to vice admiral in 1956, Felt commanded the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean for six months before the new chief of naval operations, Arleigh Burke, tapped his former assistant to be his vice chief, a promotion that leapfrogged Felt over a score of senior admirals and carried the rank of full admiral. As vice chief of naval operations, Felt enjoyed "a reputation for eating admirals for breakfast, lunch and dinner." "The majority of naval officers in the Pentagon when told that Admiral Felt wanted to see them would practically start quivering in their boots," recalled Admiral David McDonald, future chief of naval operations. Burke joked that he kept Felt around because during the war Burke had learned the value of a "no" man. When Burke retired in 1961, Newsweek rated Felt as a 20-1 longshot to succeed Burke as chief of naval operations.

Vice Admiral William P. Mack recalled the antics of the diminutive vice chief: "He would grab three-star officers by the lapels, literally shake them, and say, 'Why don't you do so and so or such and such?' They'd be thirty or forty pounds heavier than he was, but that didn't bother him at all. He was there for two years, which was probably about a year too long, because morale was getting pretty low. As I told Admiral Burke, it was just a matter of time before someone was going to slug him. You can't operate like that. Admiral Felt wasn't big enough to defend himself. I said that one of these days he's going to come at someone who's going to wipe up the corridor with him, regardless of how many stars he has."

By the end of Felt's second year as vice chief, even Burke had had about enough of him. "It isn't pleasant to fight continually with a good friend, and after a while you wonder whether he's all that good a friend." Furthermore, Burke suspected that Felt had become an automatic faultfinder, which if true would render his advice as useless as that of an automatic yes-man. When a four-star command opened up in the Pacific, Burke appointed Felt, claiming virtuously, "I couldn't hold him back just selfishly to keep him in the vice chief's job."