Horacio Rivero, Jr.

Admiral Horacio Rivero, Jr.

Horacio "Rivets" Rivero, Jr. (born May 10, 1910 in Ponce , Puerto Rico ; † September 24, 2000 in Coronado , California ) was an American admiral in the US Navy and diplomat , who was the first officer of Hispanic American descent four- Star Admiral of the USA and Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1964 to 1968 and then Supreme Commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) from 1968 to 1972 . He then held the post of Ambassador of the United States to Spain between 1972 and 1974 and was also the first Hispanic in this position.

Life

Military training and World War II

After finishing school in 1927, Rivero began his military training at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis , which he completed in 1931 as the third best of his class consisting of 441 cadets. It then found its first use on the heavy cruiser USS Northampton , before it was subsequently used between 1932 and 1936 on the heavy cruiser USS Chicago and on the battleships USS New Mexico , USS California and USS Pennsylvania . He then began studying electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which he completed in 1940 with a Master of Science (M.Sc.).

The USS Pittsburgh with its bow torn off in 1945

Rivero then became a gun officer on the light cruiser USS San Juan and, after the USA entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he took part in missions in support of the landing of the US Marines in Guadalcanal , the Marshall Islands , Iwojima and the Okinawa -Islands part. For his services there he was awarded a Bronze Star with the addition "Combat V".

Following Rivero use first officer found ( Executive Officer ) on the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh . On October 26, 1942, he took part in the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and later in the attack on Bougainville , the conquest of the Gilbert Islands and a number of operations to capture Rabaul . In addition, he took part in the Battle of Okinawa since April 1, 1945 .

On June 4, 1945, the USS Pittsburgh was caught in a strong typhoon . The entire bow suddenly detached itself in waves 21 meters high, but there were no victims. With the forecastle open, the ship now had to weather the storm on the one hand and avoid ramming the demolished bow section on the other hand, thereby further damaging the ship. The forecastle was held out of the waves while the forward hull bulkheads were supported. After seven hours, the storm subsided and the Pittsburgh crawled at six knots to Apra Harbor on Guam , where an emergency repair was made, with which she crossed the rest of the Pacific and received a full repair in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard . The tug USS Munsee later recovered the old bow section and brought it to Guam, but the USS Pittsburgh was already on its way to the American west coast.

For his services in the Battle of Okinawa and the rescue of the USS Pittsburgh and on June 5, 1945 he was awarded the Legion of Merit .

Postwar and Korean War

Rivero assumed his first command of his own in 1948 on the destroyer USS William C. Lawe

After the end of World War II, Rivero became Assistant to the Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations for Special Weapons in August 1945 and then from February 1946 to June 1947 technical assistant on the staff of the commander of the First Joint Task Force One) in operation Crossroads , the second nuclear weapons test of US forces in the bikini Atoll . He was later an officer on the staff of the Commander of the Seventh Joint Task Force in the nuclear weapons tests in Eniwetok as part of Operation Sandstone .

Following Rivero was first commander of the USS William C. Lawe , a destroyer of the Gearing class before he commander of the USS Noble was a troop transport the Haskell class . With this he took in September 1950 start of the Korean War at the Battle of Inchon in part, landing at Incheon . Thereafter, the USS Noble supported the transport of US and foreign troops and equipment in the Korean war room. In July 1953, the USS Noble, under Rivero's command, finally took part in Operation Big Switch , which moved North Korean prisoners of war from Geojedo to Incheon after the armistice agreement .

Rivero then completed a degree in nuclear weapons technology at the National War College (NWC) at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC and was then Assistant Chief of Staff for Naval Operations in 1954 , before joining his Promotion to Rear Admiral 1955 Member of the staff of the Commander-in-Chief for the Armed Forces in the Western Atlantic. From January 1958 to March 1959 he was in command of the First Destroyer Flotilla COMDESFLOT ONE (Destroyer Flotilla One) stationed in Yokosuka

Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam War

In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union prepared to deploy medium-range missiles in Cuba . On October 15, 1962 Vice Admiral Rivero was appointed commander of the amphibious forces of the US Atlantic Fleet . On October 22, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis , US President John F. Kennedy spoke out against the deployment of these medium-range missiles after the missile bases had previously been discovered during reconnaissance flights by the US Air Force . For his services during this time, he was honored with a second Legion of Merit in June 1965, where he was instead awarded a gold star for the first Legion of Merit.

In October 1963 he took over the role of Director for Navy Program Planning in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations and remained until July 1964 in this post. He was particularly responsible for the development of effective integrative planning systems that created the prerequisites for a coordinated study effort, which were particularly important for the requirements of the Ministry of Defense. In addition, he developed the organizational procedures for coordinating the entire study effort of the Ministry of the Navy and was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in January 1965 .

In July 1964, Rivero was named an admiral as the first officer of Hispanic American descent. After his promotion, he succeeded Claude V. Ricketts as Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) and thus held the second highest position within the leadership of the US Navy after the Chief of Naval Operations. His own successor as director of naval programming was then the commander of the 1st US Fleet, Vice Admiral Ephraim P. Holmes , who was in turn replaced by Vice Admiral Lawson P. Ramage . He remained in this position until he was replaced by Admiral Bernard A. Clarey in January 1968.

Supreme Commander of NATO in Southern Europe and Ambassador to Spain

He himself then became supreme commander of the Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) in January 1968 and remained at this post until 1972. In this position he was Commander in Chief of the land, sea and air forces of the units of NATO member countries Italy , Greece , Turkey , the United Kingdom and the USA stationed in the Mediterranean region . In 1971 he declared that any withdrawal of US forces from West Germany could be viewed by the NATO allies as "a first step in an ongoing process" that could lead to a strengthening of the US 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean . At that time, around 215,000 of the 310,000 US soldiers in Europe were stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany.

After retiring from active military service, Rivero succeeded Robert C. Hill as the US ambassador to Spain on September 11, 1972 . In this capacity he was again the first Hispanic and remained in this position of ambassador until November 26, 1974. Since the appointment of his originally intended Peter M. Flanigan was not confirmed by the US Senate , Wells Stabler only became his on February 20, 1975 Successor appointed and took office on March 13, 1975.

In his retirement, Rivero served as a member of the boards of directors of the US Naval Academy and the Naval War College in Newport .

Rivero married Hazel Hooper in 1941, who died in 1997. From this marriage his daughter Mary Lynn Hogan was born.

Awards

•   Navy Distinguished Service Medal
•   Legion of Merit (x2)
•   Bronze Star with the addition "Combat V"

Web links

• Adm. Horacio Rivero Jr., 90, Vice Chief of Naval Operations . In: The New York Times, September 28, 2000
• Entry in the Hall of Valor of the Military Times

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Glasgow Farragut , whose father George Farragut was born in Spain , was also promoted to admiral in 1866 after the Civil War , although the rank of four-star admiral did not exist at the time. Nonetheless, Farragut is often viewed as the first admiral in the US Navy of Hispanic American descent.
2. ^ First Fleet Commander Picked to Replace Rivero . In: The New York Times, July 17, 1964