Operation Crossroads and Final Duties
Sprague returned to the West Coast onboard Bennington (CV-20) in November 1945. He spent the next month in Washington, D.C. briefing Naval leaders at the White House. In February 1946, Sprague was given command of Navy Air Group 1.6 of Joint Task Force 1 with his flag in Shangri-La (CV-38) at San Diego, California. During the next six months he supported the naval aviation forces in Operation Crossroads nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
At Corpus Christi, Texas, Sprague was assigned as Chief of Naval Air Basic Training in August 1946. In January 1948 he was redesignated as Commander, Naval Air Advanced Training. His tour ended in April 1948. Sprague's last seagoing command was as Commander, Carrier Division 6 with his flag in Kearsarge (CV-33) from May to October 1948. During this tour Kearsarge operated in the Mediterranean. On January 1, 1949 to February 1950, Sprague was Commander of Naval Air Bases, Eleventh and Twelfth Naval District at Naval Air Station Coronado in San Diego, California. Reassigned in March 1950, Sprague was moved to Alaska where he served as Commandant, Seventeenth Naval District and Commander, Alaskan Sea Frontier on Kodiak Island. It was from here that he embarked on a B-29 and became the first U.S. Navy admiral to fly over the North Pole on November 12, 1950.
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