 The United States Army is proud to focus the big-picture camera on its sister service, the United States Navy. In telling the story of one of its most distinguished wartime leaders, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. The Nimitz story is not simply the account of an outstanding naval officer who rose to a position of greatness and honor, it is also the chronicle of our modern Navy, its coming of age and its greatest triumph in the epic struggle for the Pacific during World War II. For just as many of our Navy's greatest victories resulted from Nimitz's brilliant planning and bold strategy, so Nimitz himself is the embodiment of the finest tradition of naval service. The Nimitz story begins before the turn of the century, far from the ocean he would one day command. Texas was a prospering state in 1885 when Chester Nimitz was born in the tiny town of Fredericksburg. There was room on the great western plains where a man could run cattle or farm and grow with America. Nimitz's people were pioneer stock and their faith in their country's future formed the bedrock of their children's heritage. Although his pioneering grandfather had once followed the sea, there was little else in the boy's landlocked environment to point him towards the Navy. But while Nimitz grew, America's Navy grew too. The 100-year-old constellation was still in use to train men during the Spanish-American War, but our sea battles were fought by revolutionary armored steam warships for many spokesmen for the new Navy, not the least of them Theodore Roosevelt. Ours was still a young country and it was a two-ocean country. The Navy, which had sent the Spanish fleet to the bottom, was necessary to our defense and to our future security. The year Teddy Roosevelt entered the White House, young Chester Nimitz entered the Naval Academy. The future fleet admiral had never seen an ocean when he journeyed east, but like all young men away from home, he soon became accustomed to his new environment. He learned the Navy from the keel up and grew to love the tough and demanding life he shared with his fellow midshipmen. The physical training was as rigorous as the bookwork, and a school had the traditions of Jones and Decatur, Porter and Dewey, governed a midshipman's life. The American naval tradition ran back to the Revolution. The service itself, during Nimitz's days at Annapolis, looked to the future. New ideas on the importance of sea power, new fighting techniques and weapons were making their mark. A young man could not only see the world in the new Navy, he could find the broadest possible challenge to his imagination. The day of wooden ships had passed, but iron men were needed more than ever. Nimitz was graduated seventh in a class of 114. Regulations required him to serve two years at sea as a past midshipman before becoming an ensign in the regular Navy. This early technological marvel, one of our first submarines, was being tested for the Navy at the time Chester Nimitz joined the fleet. After duty in the Far East during the first few years of his career, Nimitz was selected with other outstanding young men to form what eventually became our Navy's submarine force. In vessels not far removed from this primitive model, Lieutenant Nimitz learned a difficult and dangerous profession. There were few books and no men of experience. You learned the only way you could by doing it yourself. Lieutenant Nimitz wrote prophetically in a naval journal of 1912, improvement in the size, motive power and speed of the submarine craft of the near future will result in the most dangerous offensive weapon. His prediction would be borne out by the importance of submarine action in the First World War. By 1918, Nimitz was one of the most experienced submariners in the service and a command. A varied background was essential to a man's career in the complex Navy. And the best place to acquire it was the surface fleet. Nimitz, when a captain went on to command major warships in the 20s and 30s, including the cruisers, Chicago and Augusta. During these years, he had full opportunity to study the kind of sea and air operations which later proved so successful in the war against Japan. In these same decades, the Japanese constructed one of the finest fleets the world had ever seen. On the fateful day of December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Navy was ready. Before Chester Nimitz was called from a desk in Washington to take command of the Pacific Fleet, it was a dark time and a formidable task. It would take a man of vast experience and vigor to bring both hope and victory out of wreckage and chaos. It would take on Nimitz. The Japanese quickly followed their surprise success at Pearl Harbor with territorial grabs across the Western Pacific as American forces fought and lost against overwhelming odds. By the spring of 1942, Japan controlled most of the land and dominated the sea and air west of Pearl Harbor. It was up to our Navy to hold the line. But if we underestimated the Japanese, they also underestimated us. When they disabled the cream of our fleet at Pearl Harbor, they did not realize that we could recover so quickly. With the recovered strength, our submarines carried the fight to the enemy's waters. The silent service that Nimitz had helped build now served him well. It would become the lance that would cut the enemy's arteries. The saga of these gallant vessels is among the most inspiring and the heroic annals of the Navy. It was clear that we had to strike back in force, but where? Nimitz had a much smaller fleet than the enemy and he was determined to use it. Where? The Coral Sea. The forces met the enemy at Midway too. The boldness and surprise of Nimitz's strategy in these two major engagements were enough to change the course of the war in the Pacific. Coral Sea and Midway were our first decisive victories. Nimitz expressed the gratitude of the nation when he decorated many of the Navy pilots and sailors who had helped turn back the enemy. As the war in the Pacific slowly changed from one of desperate defense to one of confident offense, the men who directed it found the need for careful coordination ever greater. The combined Navy and Army forces under both Nimitz and MacArthur worked smoothly to batter down the walls of Japan's Pacific Empire. But the war could not be viewed on maps and the grand strategy which defeated the enemy could not all be planned within the conference room. On an inspection tour with Admiral Halsey and Navy Secretary Frank Knox, Nimitz conferred with combat veterans in the Solomon's following our bitter six month struggle for Guadalcanal. On Quajolain Island, Nimitz inspected what was left of Japanese defenses. After the American fleet and ground forces that hit the island, wrecked equipment and fire scorched beaches told the story of our success. Before the Pacific fighting entered its final phase with the recapture of the Philippines and the final thrust at the Japanese homeland, MacArthur and President Roosevelt met with Nimitz at Sinkpack headquarters in Hawaii. Our capture of Saipan immediately before the meeting meant that a major rupture had been accomplished in Japan's inner defense perimeter. Although Nimitz and the other American leaders were unaware of it at the time, the Japanese general staff was already asking its government for a peace settlement with the United States. The Americans did know however that Premier Tojo had been forced to resign and their confidence was high. Plans for retaking the Philippines were submitted and approved at this meeting. In spite of the enormous responsibility and pressure which bore down upon Nimitz during these busy and critical days, in spite of daily decisions involving thousands of lives, he remained the same gentle, dignified, humble man he had always been. Nimitz was always the ideal commander, the quiet Texan who had begun his task in the Pacific with a shattered fleet, a fleet which in less than two years was transformed into one of the world's great navies. Under his strong imaginative guidance, men of the Navy fought a sea war such as no men had ever fought before and many new names were added to the list of American naval great. Coaching them, counseling them all in the epic struggle for victory was Nimitz. On the third anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz spoke to naval personnel and civilian workers who helped prepare many of our wreck vessels. The job is not finished. The road to Tokyo is long and arduous and we must tread it together all the way. On the mainland, our comrades must construct ships. You here must reconstruct ships. We of the fighting units must destroy ships, enemy ships. Construction, reconstruction, destruction. For Nimitz, there was no relaxation of responsibility. His life was filled with the critical business of high command as the tempo of the war increased and the relentless tide of American sea power swept forward and behind his task, behind the decisions which moved the fleet ever closer to Japan was the constant evaluation, the continuous re-examination of his strategy. Under his direction, Halsey, Sproance, Turner and others used their forces with masterly precision and deadly effect, setting the pace for subordinate commanders. At New Guinea and the Marianas, the enemy felt our power. Finally, the day came for the Philippines. Decision of Nimitz and MacArthur to skip the Southern Philippine Islands paid off. On October 20th, 1944, American soldiers stormed the Laity Beachies. As the Japanese prepared to defend themselves against the American attack, their adherence to a cause already lost carried them to fanatical excess. Two men on either side realized that the Laity Gulf action, hoped for by Nimitz and earnestly sought by Halsey, would turn into one of the most far-reaching naval engagements of all time. We had at the enemy and his losses were staggering. The adventure cost the Japanese Navy four aircraft carriers, nine destroyers, three battleships, 10 cruisers, and all reasonable hope of ever winning a sea battle from the American fleet. For some of our men, too, Laity Gulf was the last fight. Many brave Americans who died in this action were honored at sea by their comrades. The liberation of the Philippines soon became a certainty, and Nimitz urged his commanders forward. Halsey's carriers were both the cavalry and artillery of the Navy as they closed in upon the enemy. Island by island, American ground forces followed as the power of the Japanese war machine withered and began to die. But the Japanese were desperate men, and desperation bleeds its own terrors. One of the most destructive was kamikaze, the spirit of the divine wind. We called them suicide planes. In the Philippines, they came like fierce hornets. They attacked alone, and they attacked in bansheets. For a while, it seemed they would never stop coming. Nimitz's ships hit Okinawa, and troops participated in this epic landing, with the heaviest naval support in the Pacific. Okinawa represented the final, but by no means the easiest obstacle on the road to Japan. As it took stream inland from the beaches, the opposition stiffened. It was the last ditch for the Japanese, harried their strength and their faith so far in the three and one half years since Pearl Harbor, victory was now in sight. Okinawa became the death rattle of the Japanese resistance. With one last convulsive effort, enemy pilots drove their deadly planes in our fleet, but we were ready. And the only fire in the skies now came from the setting sun. Nimitz went ashore at Okinawa to view the remains. The hope and confidence which had been born at the Coral Sea and Midway during the dark and doubtful days of 1942 were here fulfilled. These were the men who had suffered the hardships of Guadalcanal and the frustration of New Guinea, men who had brought in ringing victories in the Philippines and on the tiny island of Iwo Jima. This was their final triumph. Okinawa, the door sill of Japan. At Manila, Nimitz conferred with MacArthur on the work yet to be done. The concentrated naval and ground forces of the Allies were preparing for the final assault on the Japanese home islands. From long experience, both Nimitz and MacArthur expected that the Japanese would fight until driven into the sea. But the Japanese did not. With their military and naval might smashed beyond recovery, with their cities bombed to rubble, the enemy surrendered unconditionally. For Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, it was a solemn moment, a moment of grave reflection. On his return, a jubilant nation greeted him. A day was named in his honor, and the whole city of Washington turned out to say thanks. The crowds jammed the streets to get a glimpse of the man who had done so much to bring them victory. At the Capitol building, he went before a special joint session of Congress, where he expressed his feelings to the assembled lawmakers. I am sensible of the fact that I do not come here as an individual, and I acknowledge at the outset that I am here only as a representative of the brave man who fought under my command in the Pacific. Some of them are here with me today. I pray that no future war may ever again find us unprepared. Most of all, I pray that such a war does not begin and end to our disadvantage before we can even begin to fight. This need not happen to us. It will not happen to us if we exercise our intelligence, our vigilance, and use our good, plain common sense and keep our fighting forces ready. The Admiral's welcome had its lighter side when he smoked the pipe of peace before beginning his new role as America's post-war chief of naval operations. From Admiral Richard Byrd, the new chief received a briefing on the 1946 Navy expedition to the South Pole. One of the many honorary degrees he received was awarded in a colorful ceremony with other naval and military figures at Columbia University in 1947. After his tour as chief of naval operations ended in 1948, Nimitz accepted a United Nations appointment as plebiscite administrator for Kashmir. Few of Nimitz's experiences with the United Nations yielded more pleasure than a visit from members of the Japanese diet. Our one-time enemy had become our friend, and the man who had been instrumental in their defeat joined in welcoming them to the community of free nations. In 1951, Nimitz was still not ready to relax. After he resigned his United Nations post, President Truman appointed him chairman of a special commission on internal security. In the Berkeley Hills not far from San Francisco, Nimitz lives quietly with his wife, but he continues to be active in naval affairs by serving as a special assistant to the secretary of the Navy. A weather vane with five stars and a submarine replica are all that mark the Admiral's quarters. There is still much to keep him busy, and for the first time in many years, he also finds an opportunity to enjoy his garden. Nimitz is still bound to the sea and to the great American naval tradition. His contribution in strategy and leadership will be long remembered in the Navy, and his personal example, admired by all men who follow the sea. This picture is an official report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center, presented by the Department of the Army in cooperation with this station.