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

Born 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

The 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

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positions in New York at McGraw Hill and Harper-Collins. He married Texan ER nurse Sharon Grace Simmons, and the two settled in Austin where Hornfischer parlayed his editorial skills and publishing house connections to become a well-respected literary agent. It can be argued that Hornfischer’s interest in mentoring promising writers of naval history and championing their cases before the publishing houses in New York and elsewhere accomplished as much, if not more, to elevate the public’s awareness of our great naval heritage than did his own writings. For example, NHF’s Cdr. David T. Leighton lecturer at the 2021 annual meeting, Top Gun author Capt. Dan Pederson, was a Hornfischer client.

While maintaining his literary agency, Hornfischer tried his hand at the keyboard. His first book, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, about the Battle off Samar during Leyte Gulf would earn wide acclaim and a spot on the CNO’s reading list. Hornfischer went on to publish Ship of Ghosts, Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, and The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944–1945, the latter receiving the Commodore John Barry Book Award and the John Lehman Distinguished Naval History Award.

Aware of his mortality, Hornfischer kept writing during his final days. Three books will be published posthumously: Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War, 1945–1960, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, and a book coauthored with his son David: Destroyer Captain: The Last Stand of Ernest Evans.

To quote Admiral Fallon: “Jim served as a mentor to a new generation of aspiring scholars writing history about the sea services; as a director who has provided invaluable guidance to support the missions and imperatives of the Foundation; and most significantly, [through] his outreach to veterans organizations and thousands of service members and their families to provide vital context and sense of purpose for the service and sacrifice they offered.”

Former NHF President: John T. Mitchell

Given that he was born on December 7, 1941, as president of the NHF, Mitchell often surmised that the historical date of his birth sent him on a life’s journey that would include a productive naval career as an Engineering Duty Officer, an interesting postnaval career with Bechtel National, Inc., and then finally as a board member and then president of the NHF.

Commissioned into the Navy in 1964 through the NROTC program at Rice University, Mitchell served on the recently recommissioned guided missile cruiser Columbus, working with both the Tartar and Talos surfaceto-air missile systems. Selected to become an Engineering Duty Officer, he drew an assignment to the Naval Plant Office assigned to monitor the production of submarine-launched ballistic missiles. After earning his master’s in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School, Mitchell headed north to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard as the Combat Systems Officer and shipyard closure manager. He then enjoyed a tour with the Royal Australian Navy as part of the Personnel Exchange Program working as a weapons Quality Control Engineer.

In July 1981, Commander Mitchell commenced a 10-year run in the Director, Strategic Systems Project Office as Director of the Technical Division overseeing the development of the Trident I and Trident II ballistic missile programs. He served consecutively as Missile Branch Head, Technical Director and Director. Having been promoted to 0-6, in April 1991, Captain Mitchell assumed duty as Direct Reporting Program Manager for the Strategic Systems Program. He was promoted to rear admiral (lower half) on 1 April 1992. He served concurrently on the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisors Group, and as Program Director for Navy Theater Missile Defense. Rear Admiral Mitchell retired on July 1, 1994.

Following his retirement from active duty, Rear Admiral Mitchell worked for Bechtel National, Inc. from 1994 to 2006 as Senior Project Manager, Senior Vice President, General Manager Nevada Test Site, General Manager Yucca Mountain Project, and Deputy Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He served on the

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board of directors of Pantex Plant, Savannah River Plant, Idaho National Laboratory, Bettis National Laboratory, and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. At the urging of the then NHF Chairman Adm. Bruce DeMars, he joined the board of directors of the NHF where he supported the science teacher fellowship program that brought high school STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) educators to the Navy Museum to use exhibits to inspire lesson plans. He served as NHF president from 2012 to 2016. During his tenure as president he built closer ties with other organizations, helping the National Maritime Historical Society to establish their annual Washington National Maritime Awards Dinner and hosting a memorable reception for the North American Society for Oceanic History annual conference in Monterey, California. At the time of his June passing, he was on the board of the Tall Ship Providence Foundation.

A True Naval Aviation Legend: Ted Bronson: Remembering

In August the Naval Historical Foundation lost a long-time friend and avid supporter with the passing of Capt. Edward F. “Ted” Bronson, U.S. Navy (Ret.). Born in Havre de Grace, Maryland, Bronson grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and after earning his B.S. from LaSalle College in Philadelphia in 1954, he was accepted at the University of Chicago, receiving a master of arts degree in June 1958. He received that degree as a naval officer, having graduated from the Navy’s Aviation Officer Candidate program and earning his commission on June 28, 1957.

“Cash” Bronson served 29 years, and in 1976 he became the 25th naval aviator to achieve 1,000 carrier landings. His first of seven Vietnam tours was in 1963 with the South Vietnam Air Force, transitioning T-28 pilots into AD-6 Skyraiders. His later Vietnam actions included combat tours in Attack Squadron 113 aboard Kitty Hawk [1966] and Enterprise [1967], flying the A4C Skyhawk for 236 missions over North Vietnam. Later he served as Flight Deck Officer and Handler aboard USS Oriskany for Yankee Station deployments in 1969/70/71. He returned to the Gulf of Tonkin in 1972 as the Commander, Task Force 77 Air Operations officer. After his 1976 Attack Squadron 46 Commanding Officer tour flying A-7B Corsairs from John F. Kennedy, he reported to the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs. Chief of Legislative Affairs, then Rear Admiral, Tom Kilcline would state: “Bronson was more responsible than any other OPNAV person for the Congressional approval for production of the F/A-18.” After a tour as the executive assistant to Navy Director, Command and Control, he was tasked to form Naval Space Command, Dahlgren, Virginia.

From 2007 to 2017 he served as the NHF’s aviation representative to an advisory committee that supported the build-out of the Navy Museum’s Cold War Gallery at the Washington Navy Yard. His legacy can be seen in the Cold War Gallery Ready Room, which replicated the ready room of his VA-46 “Clansman” using artifacts that he donated. In addition, he coordinated the fundraising for the production of models of Cold War vintage aircraft. Furthermore, to correct a long-neglected oversight, Captain Bronson initiated the awarding of Navy Astronaut Wings to Neil Armstrong in 2010.

NHF Chairman Admiral Fallon remembers Captain Bronson as a stalwart supporter of naval history, stating, “No person was as energetic and diligent in pursuing the causes in which he believed than Ted Bronson. His perseverance and attention to detail in the naval aviation portion of the Cold War Gallery brought it to fruition almost singlehandedly. I am pleased that we were able to honor Ted as an early recipient of the NHF Volunteer of the Year award. May his soul rest in peace.”

Much of the artifacts seen in the Navy Museum’s Cold War Gallery Ready Room -- including the flight suit on the right -- were donated by Captain Bronson.