George Lincoln Rockwell - Military Service and Marriages

Military Service and Marriages

In his sophomore year, Rockwell dropped out of Brown University and accepted a commission in the United States Navy. He appreciated the order and discipline of the Navy, and attended flight schools in Massachusetts and Florida in 1940.

On April 24, 1943, Rockwell married Judy Aultman, whom he had met while attending Brown University. Aultman was a student at Pembroke College, which was the female section of the university. The couple had three daughters: Bonnie, Nancy, and Phoebe Jean. At the time, Rockwell was studying at the Navy's aerial photography school in South Florida. When he completed his training, he served in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

Rockwell was recalled to duty as a Lieutenant Commander at the beginning of the Korean War. He relocated to San Diego, California with his wife and two children, where he trained Navy and United States Marine Corps pilots.

In 1952, Rockwell was ordered to report to Norfolk, Virginia, where he was notified by a superior officer that he would be transferred to Iceland. Since families were not permitted to be with American service personnel stationed there, his wife and children stayed with her mother in Barrington, Rhode Island. Due to the separation, his wife filed for divorce the following year. Several months after his return to Iceland, Rockwell attended a diplomatic party in the capital city of Reykjavík. He met Þóra Hallgrímsdóttir there, and they were married on October 3, 1953 in the Icelandic National Cathedral by Þóra's uncle, the Bishop of Iceland. They spent their honeymoon in Berchtesgaden, Germany, where Hitler once owned the Berghof mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps.

Rockwell told Þóra about his political beliefs, and she replied he would either be a "bum or a great man". She divorced him on October 15, 1961.