Vice Admiral William Theodore (Barney)
Rapp was my boss at Pearl Harbor for a short period in 1973. A recent
communication with a friend and colleague of his brought to mind the situation
and events that occurred then. Just prior, in 1972, I had been urged by Bob
McManus and other of my friends at the Navy Electronic Laboratory Center in San
Diego to volunteer for the position of Science Advisor to Vice Admiral James.
F. Calvert, Commander First Fleet, stationed aboard the USS Blue Ridge LCC19
operating from the 32nd street naval facility in San Diego. I
accepted the challenge and reported regularly aboard for duty. There was even
one occasion when the Blue Ridge put to sea with me aboard, however, my service
under Admiral Calvert was short lived.
What I did not know at the time and
have only just begun to realize was that the Navy then was undergoing some
radical changes under the aegis of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Chief of Naval
Operations. Among the many consolidations and reorganizations were the elimination
of First Fleet and the folding of those responsibilities into Third Fleet
stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Some may remember Zumwalt for his very
controversial policies relaxing many ordinary military formalities and
standards in an attempt to bring the Navy into the “modern” world. Needless to
say not everyone agreed with the changes of that era nor have the changes stuck
in most cases.
The upshot of all this was my job
suddenly was not in San Diego anymore but in Hawaii and my new boss would be
the commander of the Third Fleet. Vice Admiral Calvert retired and I flew to
Hawaii and took up residence in the bachelor officers’ quarters at Pearl. My
desk was now on Ford Island in the headquarters building for Third Fleet,
accessible each day by a navy shuttle boat. The Navy kindly took my little
English sports car as a deck load aboard a ship that happened to be on its way
to Pearl. I had wheels. My wife, Barbara and son Patrick, then 12 years old,
stayed in San Diego until school was out and then joined me in Hawaii. We
rented a really swell apartment for the summer on the 24th floor of
a building in downtown Honolulu overlooking Ala Moana Park.
This blog is not about what we did in
Hawaii but about one of the most admirable and likeable persons I have ever
known and my all too short span of duty in his office, headquarters of Third Fleet.
The rest of this account will be about that man, Vice Admiral Barney Rapp.
As preamble I need to point out that
the top ranking naval officer in that area is a four star admiral whose title
is Commander Naval Forces Pacific, one half of the American navy. His office is
at Pearl but not on Ford Island. Under him ComThirdFleet commands all forces
afloat and ASW units, such as patrol aircraft, in the Pacific (minus Asian area
forces). A little bit about Barney - he was a graduate of Annapolis and
initially served on destroyers during the war. He then got into aviation and
trained in multi-engine aircraft. He had an ongoing career in anti-submarine
warfare (ASW). In the 1970s we were deeply involved in the cold war and our
primary attention at Third Fleet was keeping an eye on Russian subs that were
everywhere in the Pacific.
The Navy has customs and protocols, all
vital in my view. to an effective and smooth running service. Admiral Rapp, a
really sweet guy, certainly agreed with me on that. When I first arrived I was
asked by one of Rapp’s staff what my grade level was and my latest date of
promotion. At the time I was GS15 step 4. He grinned and said, “Well, you
outrank his exec, a captain, so at meals you sit right next to him at the head
of the table.” The Navy has for a very long time integrated important civilian
staff into the structure of the military ranks and protocols. This was no
surprise and didn’t bother anyone.
In spite of Barney’s generous and friendly nature he had
very effective ways of enforcing his views on good order and discipline. There
was an incident which I observed from my desk: a young sailor was reported to
Barney for discipline for failing to salute an officer he passed while walking
on Ford Island. Barney told his aide to keep the young man standing at
attention in the hall for thirty minutes then send him in. He then gave the
terrified young man a mild dressing down and sent him on his way. My guess is
that that sailor never made that error again. The Navy protocol for courtesy is fundamental and should be learned by all in boot camp. See link. http://www.courses.netc.navy.mil/courses/14325/14325_ch9.pdf
One day a squadron of four Chinese
Nationalist destroyers (that we had given them I presume) came into Pearl on an
official port call. Barney observed them from the window of his office on Ford
Island as they sailed in and noted that they were badly out of trim. He
dictated a stern reprimand message to the commander of the squadron for
appearing at Pearl in such condition.
While there I deduced that there was some tension between Barney and his superior, a four star admiral, COMPAC. Barney in his interest to bring about some good order and discipline had the habit of traveling around Pearl in his barge visible in his full uniform demanding passing courtesy of the various ships at anchor or underway (please read the link on “passing courtesy”). The four star always traveled on land in a blacked out auto and no one ever saw him.
Barney, an aide of his, and I were
scheduled to fly back to the North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego to
attend a technical conference featuring a number of papers on new weapon
developments out of the Naval Weapons Lab at China Lake. We traveled tourist
class by commercial air – Boeing 707, I presume. The aide and I sat together
and Barney was across the aisle. The aide leaned over to me and said “This is
the fastest that Barney has ever flown.” Barney had trained on the Navy version
of the old B24 developed for Navy use, the PB4Y2, and had no doubt flown the
Lockheed P2V Neptune and its successor the turbo prop P3V ASW patrol aircraft.
I especially recall the day Barney came
to me and said some engineers from Bethpage, Long Island were scheduled to be
there that day to give us a presentation on a new fighter aircraft for the
fleet. He wanted me to listen in and give him a report and an opinion. I was
excited and delighted to get a run down on what the Navy was to put into service
the following year, the F14 Tomcat, a fabulous machine made by Grumman that
served the Navy as its front line fighter for decades.
One last little story – things weren’t so
correct in those days. Barney had one of his Lockheed P3’s returning from
Alaska bring us some salmon for a big staff summer party. The party came off
well on Ford Island and Barbara got to meet Barney at last.
Barney sadly died at too young an age,
68, in 1988 and is interred at Arlington.
https://www.billiongraves.com/grave/William-Theodore-Rapp/11572741
