Notable Passings Pull Together honors four remarkable individuals who passed on in the wake of our last edition. Secretary of the Navy and Senator: John W. Warner
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orn in 1927 and a native of Washington, D.C., John W. Warner enlisted in the Navy during the final year of World War II and still was at Great Lakes Naval Training Station when news broke of the German surrender. He would kiddingly recall his combat experience as being detailed to quell overly rambunctious celebratory crowds in the streets of Chicago. Following his discharge from the Navy, he pursued an undergraduate degree at Washington and Lee and then enrolled at the University of Virginia Law School. While at Washington and Lee he enrolled in the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course and earned a commission as a Marine Corps 2nd Lieutenant. Brought on active duty, Warner served as a ground maintenance officer for the 1st Marine Air Wing stationed behind the front lines in Korea. Following the war he completed his law degree and served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals. He eventually joined the law firm of Hogan & Hartson and served as an advance man in Richard Nixon’s 1960 campaign for the White House. When Nixon won the presidency in 1968, Warner had hoped to be appointed as Secretary of the Navy. Instead, the post went to John Chafee, and Warner served as the Undersecretary. As Undersecretary, Warner negotiated the Incidents at Sea Agreement with the Soviet Union and would sign the accord in Moscow on May 25, 1972, in Moscow. His passing fell exactly one year short of the 50th anniversary of the implementation of that agreement. After a successful tenure in charge of the American Bicentennial Commission, a change of administrations returned him to private practice. With no experience as an elected official, he ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia in 1978 only to be edged out at the nominating convention. However, with the death of the GOP candidate in a plane crash, Warner found himself the Republican standard bearer. Aided on the campaign trail by his second wife Elizabeth Taylor, Warner barely won what would be his first of five terms in the U.S. Senate. Representing Virginia first as the junior and then senior senator and serving on and chairing the Armed Services Committee, Warner took an avid interest in the Navy and
Marine Corps. He maintained a close relationship with NHF Chairman Adm. James L. Holloway III, who had been CNO when Warner was SecNav, and this led to an appropriation to support the NHF’s Cold War Gallery capital campaign. Over the years Senator Warner’s support of maritime heritage was demonstrated by his attendance at a National Maritime Awards Dinner that was sponsored by the Historical Society in collaboration with the NHF. He attended NHF receptions held at the Navy Museum to welcome incoming Secretaries of the Navy. Recently, he aided an NHF effort in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to broaden public awareness of the state of the nuclear power infrastructure in this nation, focusing on how the United States had lost its historic edge in this mode of energy generation. He was a recipient of the NHF’s Admiral DeMars Award for service to the NHF. While others will recognize Senator Warner as the type of consensus-building get-thingsdone politician that Washington is sorely lacking and note his legacy as Liz Taylor’s seventh husband, we will always remember him as a patriot, a champion of the sea services, a believer in the importance of heritage, and a friend.
Naval Historian and NHF Board Member: James D. Hornfischer
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he NHF lost an active, enthusiastic, and engaging member of its board of directors in early June with the passing of Jim Hornfischer. One of the most prolific and popular 21st-century historians of World War II naval history, Hornfischer was also one of its most honored. His awards included the 2018 Samuel Eliot Morison Award, given by the Board of Trustees of the USS Constitution Museum, for work that “reflects the best of Admiral Morison: artful scholarship, patriotic pride, an eclectic interest in the sea and things maritime, and a desire to preserve the best of our past for future generations”; the 2020 NHF Distinguished Service Award; and a Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award. Born in Massachusetts in 1965, Hornfischer attended Colgate University. Graduating in 1987, he landed editing Continued on page 20
Pull Together • Fall 2021
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