United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

Page 20 text:

 'tW tr

Page 19 text:

ixnnovj

Page 21 text:

From the plains of Texas to the Admiral’s bridge of the U.S.S. TEXAS, the flagship of the United States Fleet, seems like a long, long jump. It took forty-six years to accomplish, but to Henry A. Wiley those years were filled with adventure and purpose. He served his country in three wars and during his stay in the Navy, he was assigned to every description of vessel: monitors, tugs, survey ships, destroyers, battleships, and training ships. He entered Annapolis at the age of 16 and graduated in 1899. During the Spanish American War, he served aboard the U.S.S. MAPLE, a lighthouse tender which had been hastily converted to a combat ship with the addition of a few guns. Prior to this war he had spent two years aboard Coast and Geodetic Survey vessels engaged in charting the Grand Banks and New England seacoast. The first contact which Henry A. Wiley had with Merchant Marine per- sonnel came in 1893 when he was assigned to the Cadet Training Ship ST. MARY’S, which was operated by the city of New York in conjunction with the Navy. As an officer aboard the ST. MARY’S, Ensign Wiley instnicted Cadets in navigation and seamanship. This background in Merchant Marine officer training gave him a firsthand insight which would become invaluable to him in the years that followed. During World War I, Wiley, who had advanced to the rank of Captain, commanded the battleship WYOMING. In 1918 he was made a Rear Admiral and placed in charge of the naval training facilities in the Chesapeake Bay area. At the termination of the war, he was sent to Europe as a member of the commission that enforced the naval terms of the peace. Upon his return to the United States, he attended the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, and in 1923 he was appointed to the rank of Vice Admiral. The peak of his career came in 1927 when he was made a full Admiral and was given the position of Commander in Chief of United States Naval Forces, a command which he held until his retirement in 1929. Although Admiral Wiley started his career in the “old Navy,” he was not one to let tradition hamper the march of progress. During the 1920’s he was one of the few men who advocated the incorporation of air power into naval operations, and he predicted the future role of the aircraft carrier in replacing the battleship as the primary naval weapon. In 1936, Admiral Wiley was ap- pointed by President Roosevelt to the United States Maritime Commission as Commissioner in charge of Training. When the Cadet Training Section was established in 1938, it was done under his auspices and thus he became known as “The Father of the Cadet Corps,” and when the Academy was built, the Administration Building was named “Wiley Hall” in his honor. Admiral Wiley returned to active duty during World War II as Chairman of the Navy Board of Production Awards in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy. Henry A. Wiley