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GENERALS OF THE ARMY AND THE AIR FORCE AND ADMIRALS OF THE NAVY
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[[image: photograph of Vice Admiral Alfred Melville Pride]]
[[photo credit: U.S. Navy Photograph]]

PRIDE, ALFRED MELVILLE, VICE ADMIRAL U.S. NAVY (41336)

Born in Somerville, Massachusetts, on September 10, 1897, son of Alfred Morine and Grace (White) Pride. He attended the Engineering School at Tuft's College, Medford, Massachusetts, and enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force on March 20, 1917, as a Machinist's Mate, second class. On September 17, 1918, he was appointed ensign in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps, and advanced to lieutenant (jg), April 1, 1919, and lieutenant, July 1, 1920. Transferred to the Regular Navy on November 28, 1921, he subsequently attained the rank of rear admiral to date from July 5, 1943. He was advanced to the rank of vice admiral, to date from October 9, 1953.

After his enlistment in the U.S. Naval Reserve Force in March 1917, he joined the USS WILD GOOSE 1. Detached from that vessel in October of that year, he was assigned to the District Enrolling Office, First Naval District, Boston, Massachusetts, and on March 1, 1918 was promoted to Chief Quartermaster. He had duty with the Naval Aviation Detachment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge, and the following June was transferred to Naval Air Station, Miami, Florida. Ordered to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, for flight training in July 1918, he was designated Naval Aviator #1119 on September 17, 1918, at which time he was commissioned ensign. He proceeded to London, England, for duty with the U.S. Naval Forces operating in European waters, and assigned to the U.S. Naval Air Station, Montchic-Lacanau, (Gironde) France.

Returning to the United States in January 1919, shortly after the Armistice, he served until October of the same year as Ordnance Officer at the Naval Air Station, Chatham, Massachusetts, after which he reported for training in land machines at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida. Completing his training in December 1919, he had alternate duties until September 1921 in the Atlantic Fleet Ship Plane Division, Mitchell Field, Mineola, New York, and aboard the USS ARIZONA.

He then reported to Hampton Roads, Virginia, for duty  with the aviation detachment of the USS LANGLEY, and while there developed the arresting gear to be installed on the LANGLEY. In March 1922 he joined the converted LANGLEY (the old collier JUPITER refitted for her new role as the first aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy). He, with other junior officers, carried out experimental take-offs and landings in October 1922 on the deck of that aircraft carrier. Detached from the LANGLEY in May 1924, he reported the following month to the Postgraduate School, Annapolis, Maryland, for instruction in aeronautical engineering continuing that course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge.

During September and October 1926 he had duty in connection with fitting out the USS SARATOGA, after which he had similar duty in the USS LEXINGTON, and reported aboard that aircraft carrier upon her commissioning, December 14, 1927, to serve until August 1929 as Watch and Division Officer and Pilot. Following duty at the Naval Air Station as Officer in Charge of the Experimental Detachment, Hampton Roads, Virginia, he piloted a naval autogiro plane on its initial landing tests aboard the LANGLEY in September 1931. He assumed command on June 13, 1932 of Bombing Squadron 5, and later commanded Fighting Squadron 3 based on the LANGLEY, operating with Aircraft, Battle Force.

Detached from the latter Squadron in June 1934, he served the following two years in charge of the Flight Test Section at the Naval Air Station, Anacostia, D. C. Transferred in June 1936 to the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department,He served in the Engineering Division, Material Branch, and in June 1937 joined the USS WRIGHT as Air Officer. In October 1938 he was assigned to the staff of Commander Patrol Wing I, based in San Diego, California, as Chief of Staff and Operations Officer. Between June 1939 and April 1941 he had duty with the Aeronautical Board, Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., after which he returned to sea to serve as Executive Office of the USS SARATOGA until June 1942.

After brief duty in the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, he was ordered in December 1942 to duty in charge of fitting out the USS BELLEAU WOOD, assuming command of that aircraft carrier when commissioned March 31, 1943; the raid on Wake Island in October 1943; the occupation of Makin Island, Gilbert Islands in November 1943 and the raid on Kwajalein Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall

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FEBRUARY, 1955 ISSUE   37
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Islands, in December 1943. She also participated in raids on Taroa Island, Maleolap Atoll, Marshall Islands, January 1944; the occupation of Ksajalein, Marshall Islands, January and February 1944; the raid on Truk Island, Caroline Islands, Saipan and Tinian Islands, Marianas Islands, February 1944; the occupation of Emirau Islands, Bismark Archipelago, March 1944, the raid on Palau Island, Ulithi Island, Ngulu Islands, March 1944, and the raid on Waleai Island, Caroline Islands, April 1944.

He received a Letter of Commendation with authorization to wear the Commendation Ribbon from the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, for his services in the Mariana and received a facsimile of, and the ribbon for, the Presidential Unit Citation awarded the USS BELLEAU WOOD. The citation follows in part:

"For distinguished service... in action during the operation against the Japanese bases at Tinian, Saipan and Guam in the Marianas on 22 February 1944. In this section for the first time in the war in the Pacific, a Carrier Task Force was discovered by the enemy and obliged to fight its way to its objective....The excellence of his performance in the execution of his duties contributed greatly to the success of our mission and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service."

Presidential Unit Citation - USS BELLEAU WOODE: "For extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces in the air, ashore and afloat in the Pacific War Area from September 18, 1943 to August 15, 1945. Spearheading the concentrated carrier warfare in forward areas, the BELLEAU WOOD and her air groups struck crushing blows toward annihilating Japanese fighting power; they provided air cover for our amphibious forces; they fiercely countered the enemy's aerial attacks and destroyed his planes; and they inflicted terrific losses on the Japanese in Fleet and merchant marine units sunk or damaged..."

In March 1944 he was promoted to Rear Admiral and ordered to the Fourteenth Naval District, Pearl Harbor, T.H., where he remained in command of the Naval Air Center and Naval Air Bases until April 1945. He then became Commander Air Support Control Unit, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet. "For meritorious conduct..." in this command from April 18 to October 15, 1945, he was awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat "V." The citation continues in part:

"... During the planning, staging and execution of the assault and capture of Okinawa Shima… he capably coordinated and administered the numerous enemy gun emplacements, troop concentrations, and equipment, thus rendering valuable assistance to the assault troops, and he planned and directed the activities of the Combat Air Patrol, thereby providing the effective and important air protection for all fleet units in the assault area..."

In January 1946 he reported for duty in the Material Division, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., where he served as Officer in Charge of the Material Control Branch, until December 1946. He assumed command of Carrier Division 6, and in January 1947 transferred in the same capacity to Carrier Division 4. Relieved of that command in March 1947, he returned to the United States and was assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department. On May 1, 1947, he assumed duty as Chief of that Bureau, continuing to serve in that capacity until May 1951, when he reported as Commander Carrier Division 2.

In May 1952 he became Commander Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland, remaining in that assignment until November 1953, reporting the next month as Commander SEVENTH fleet.

In addition to the Legion of Merit, the Commendation Ribbon, both the Combat "V," and the Presidential Unit Citation ribbon, Vice Admiral Pride has the World War I Victory Medal, Aviation Clasp; the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with silver star (five engagements); the American Campaign Medal; the World War II Victory Medal; National Defense Service Medal; and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon.

His official address is Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. His wife is the former Helen Nickerson Burrell of Somerville, Massachusetts. They have two children, Mrs. Carol Lemeshewsky and Alfred Morine Pride.

Address: c/o Navy Department, Washington 25, D.C.

PUGH, LAMONT, REAR ADMIRAL
U.S. NAVY (14506)

Lamont Pugh, the twenty-fifth Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and the twenty-first to hold the title of Surgeon General of the Navy, was born on a farm near Batesville, Albemarle County, Virginia, on February 5, 1895. He is the second Surgeon General of the Navy from the Old Dominion State; the other have been Rear Admiral Presley M. Rixey. He was also the second Surgeon General of the Navy to have been appointed while serving as Deputy Surgeon General; the other was Assistant Surgeon P.J. Horwitz, who served as Surgeon General from 1865 to 1869.

The second in a family of eight children, he received the first seven years of his schooling in a one-room country school in his naïve county and in 1909 and 1910 attended public school in Charlotte, North Carolina, for one year. He then returned to Virginia and continued through the successive grades, graduating from the Charlottesville High School in 1914. That fall he entered the University of Virginia, where he was a student in the academic department for three years. In June 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as a private and later as a corporal. At the wars' end he was in the Officers' Training School, Quantico, Virginia. In order that he might return to civilian life and resume his collegiate course as expeditiously as possible, however, he elected not to remain in the service until completion of a course for commission.

Upon his return to civil life in 1919, he entered competition for and won the Herndon Scholarship in the Department of Medicine at the University of Virginia. That scholarship was founded upon the bequest