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SEPTEMBER 1955     21

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. His wife has said that he "used to like to walk with his friends when they went hunting, but he would never shoot anything himself. He's too kind hearted." Mrs. Brucker has been the educational director of a School of Government in Detroit, which has about 200 members and is affiliated with the General Federation of Women's Clubs. "We have speakers on current affairs," she has said, "and put on a May Day luncheon each year to combat the Communist celebration."

The Washington Post and Times Herald, in an editorial on June 23, 1955, stated: "Brucker is personable and is liked by his associates as an individual. He is scholarly and cautious in his approach; yet he has created a reputation for vigor and conviction in his appearances on Capitol Hill." The Washington Post has reported one of Brucker's favorite stories: At a party before Brucker's appointment as Army Secretary, a Russian general asked Brucker if he had ever seen military service. "I was a corporal in the Army," Brucker answered. "Well," said the general, "don't let it give you an inferiority complex. Often there's a general's brain in a private's shoes."

References
Christian Sci Mon p6 Je 22 '55
N Y Herald Tribune II p5 Je 26 '55 por
Newsweek 46:20 Jl 4 '55 por
Time 66:17 J;l 4 '55 por
Washington (D.C.) Post p40 Je 24 '55 por
World's Work 60:75 Ap '31 por Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, 1952 
Who's Who in America (Sup. O '54)
Who's Who in United States Politics (1952)

BURKE, ARLEIGH A(LBERT) Oct. 19, 1901- United States Naval officer
Address: b. Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Navy Dept., Washington 25, D.C.; h. 4529 Hawthorne St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

Although Rear Admiral Arleigh A. Burke ranked ninety-third on the United States Navy's list of line admirals, he was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on May 25, 1955 to succeed Admiral Robert B. Carney as Chief of U.S. Naval Operations. His appointment surprised the Pentagon, the New York Times (May 26, 1955) reported, as it is believed that he is the first rear admiral with a subordinate command to be elevated to the high Navy post. He took office in August 1955, automatically becoming a vice-admiral.

Nicknamed "thirty-one knot Burke" by Admiral William F. Halsey in 1943, he was noted for the high speed at which he carried his destroyer squadron into twenty-two combat engagements in the Pacific battles of World War II. He holds many distinguished service awards.

His participation in the "Admirals' revolt of 1949," against emphasis on the B-36 Air Force bomber in the Armed Forces unification plan, reportedly delayed Burke's promotion to rear admiral. The appointment was finally approved by President Harry S. Truman on December 29, 1949. He was a member of the United Nations Military Armistice Commission at Kaesong, Korea during the summer of 1951.

Arleigh Albert Burke was born in Boulder, Colorado on October 19, 1901, the son of Oscar A. and Claire (Mokler) Burke. His parents were of Swedish and Pennsylvania Dutch stock (his paternal grandfather changed his name from Bjorkegren). Arleigh was the eldest of six children. They lived on a 170-acre farm far from the ocean. Young Burke attended the State Preparatory School in Boulder and the Naval Academy Preparatory School at Columbia, Missouri, before his appointment to the United States Naval Academy from the Second District of Colorado in 1919. Time (July 17, 1944) wrote that "his heart was in the Navy from the time he was able to walk" and that at Annapolis he had no time for athletics or "midshipmen's monkey-business."

After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1923, Ensign Burke was attached to the U.S.S. Arizona for five years, with duty in several divisions which included a course of instruction at the Naval Torpedo School on North Island, San Diego, California. He was transferred to the U.S.S. Procyon, flagship of the Fleet Base Force, in April 1928. During his year of service on the Procyon, he received a Letter of Commendation for the "rescue of shipwrecked and seafaring men" on December 4, 1928.

He returned to Annapolis in June 1929 for postgraduate instruction in ordnance engineering (explosives) and also studied at the Postgraduate School, University of Michigan, where he received an M.S. degree in engineering in June 1931. He continued under instruction in naval ordnance activities and joined the U.S.S. Chester in June 1932, as assistant gunnery and main battery officer. Two of the next five years were spent on duty in the Navy Department's explosives section at the Bureau of Ordnance in Washington. He assisted in outfitting his first destroyer, the U.S.S. Craven, at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Quincy, Massachusetts, and was the ship's executive officer from September 1937 to June 1939.

In command of the U.S.S. Mugford, flagship of Destroyer Division Eight, Destroyers Battle Force, in 1939, Burke trained its gunners to "razor fineness" and set a new destroyer shooting record and won the gunnery trophy in competition (Time, July 17, 1944(. He returned to the Bureau of Ordnance in July 1940 and was with the inspection division of the naval gun factory at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., until January 1943.

He attained the rank of captain on May 1, 1943 and in September of the same year was designated commander, Destroyer Squadron 23 (two divisions) which was known as "Little Beavers" after Captain Burke dressed each ship with a new insignia - a character from Fred Harman's comic strip Red Ryder - called "Little Beaver." Time reported that on October 31, 1943, the squadron "swept around the Solomons