William Halsey, Jr. - Early Years

Early Years

Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on October 30, 1882, the son of US Navy Captain William F. Halsey, Sr.. His father was a descendant of Senator Rufus King, who was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat, and Federalist candidate for both Vice President (1804, 1808) and President of the United States (1816). Halsey attended the Pingry School.

After waiting two years to receive an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, the young Halsey decided to study medicine at the University of Virginia and then join the Navy as a physician. He chose Virginia because his best friend, Karl Osterhause, was there. While there, Halsey joined the prestigious Delta Psi fraternity. After his first year, Halsey received his appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and entered the Academy in the Fall of 1900.

Halsey graduated from the Naval Academy in 1904 after lettering in football as a fullback and earning several athletic honors. He spent his early service years in battleships and sailed with the main battle fleet aboard the battleship Missouri as Roosevelt's Great White Fleet circumnavigated the globe from 1907 to 1909. Later, he served aboard torpedo boats, beginning with USS Du Pont in 1909. Halsey was one of the few officers who was promoted directly from Ensign to full Lieutenant, skipping the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade). Torpedoes and torpedo boats became specialties of his, and he commanded the First Group of the Atlantic Fleet's Torpedo Flotilla in 1912 through 1913, and also several torpedo boats and destroyers during the 1910s and 1920s. At that time, the destroyer and the torpedo boat, though extremely hazardous, were the most effective way to bring the torpedo into combat against capital ships. Lieutenant Commander Halsey's World War I service, including command of USS Shaw in 1918, was sufficiently distinguished to earn a Navy Cross.