TOP MAN OF THE NAVY

Nominated by President Truman to be U.S. Chief of Naval Operations and Navy member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Admiral William Morrow Fechteler (pronounced Fek'-tel-er).

Born: March 6, 1896, in San Rafael, Calif.; eldest son of the late Rear Admiral Augustus Fechteler, Annapolis '77. His German-born father captained the gunboat Concord at Manila, commanded the Fifth Naval District from 1918 to 1921, when he retired and died soon after. His brother Frank (Annapolis '18) was killed testing his plane for the 1922 Detroit Air Races.

Education: Public schools, Washington, D.C.; U.S. Naval Academy.

Married: May 24, 1928 to Goldye Stevens, widow of Commander Rodney H. Dobson, who went down with the submarine S-51 off the coast of Rhode Island in September 1925. Two children: a stepson, Rodney, 28 (Annapolis '44), now an engineer with Du Pont, and a daughter, Joan, 21, a Wellesley senior.

Appearance: Husky (6 ft., 200 Ibs.), jaunty, bluff, with a rakish flyer's tilt to his gold-braided cap.

Early Career: Graduated from Annapolis 18th (of 176), in the same class (1916) but ahead of two leading candidates for the job of CNO, Admirals Radford and Carney. Served on battleship Pennsylvania in World War I. Began a routine series of tours, too heavily larded with staff assignments (said his friends) for a successful career. In 1942, became director of officer personnel in the Navy's Bureau of Personnel.

World War II: Was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Shackled to noncombat jobs until 1943, when he got a fine sea billet as captain of the new battleship Indiana in the Pacific. Proved himself a shrewd and relaxed combat officer. Once, when warned by the captain of the ancient Tennessee ("Old Blisterbutt") about making too much smoke, he coolly signaled back: "Smoke unavoidable. Forced to cut out the boilers and burn garbage to slow down to your speed." In 1944, promoted to rear admiral and assigned to MacArthur's theater; led an amphibian group safely through the Hollandia and Philippine invasions.

Postwar: Went back to a desk after the war, served as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Personnel, became a four-star admiral in 1950, and then commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Is recognized as a harddriving, able, "black-shoe" (i.e., non-aviator) BuPers man. Picked as supreme commander of NATO naval forces in the Atlantic. Winston Churchill stirred such fuss against an American commander in the post that Fechteler never served.

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