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Contact Info
Home Town Topeka, KS
Last Address Honolulu, HI
Date of Passing Feb 25, 1992
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates 6 5024-A
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Born in Topeka, Kansas, to Harry Victor Felt and the former Grace Greenwood Johnson, Felt attended public school in Goodland, Kansas, before moving with his family to Washington, D.C., at the age of ten. Lacking money for college, Felt entered a cram school for the U.S. Naval Academy and was appointed to the academy in 1919. At the Academy, Felt received good marks but graduated in 1923 with the unremarkable class rank of 152 out of 413, having accumulated almost as many demerits as anyone in his class.
Felt retired in July 1964 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age, and spent his later years in Honolulu, Hawaii. He died on February 25, 1992, and is buried beside his wife in ArlingtonNationalCemetery.
Felt had a terrifying reputation as an arrogant, caustic, hard-driving perfectionist. "Many people were afraid of him ... he was pretty rough", commented Vice Admiral Lawson P. Ramage. A former aide described him as "mean as hell", and his staff complained that he worked "as though there were no holidays, Saturdays and Sundays, and expects others to do the same". "He was small in stature, but a blunt, tough, demanding taskmaster who brought discomfiture to his peers and earned the antipathy, if not animosity, of his subordinates", judged former subordinate and future four-star admiral Ignatius J. Galantin. A crack poker player, Felt unapologetically summarized his philosophy as "Trust everybody, but always cut the cards."
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Saratoga (CV-3)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander Harry Donald Felt, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Combat Plane and Group Commander of Air Group THREE (AG-3), attached to the U.S.S. SARATOGA (CV-3), in action against an enemy Japanese surface force northeast of the Solomon Islands, on 24 August 1942. Opposed by intense anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighter planes, Commander Felt led an air attack which resulted in the damaging or sinking of an aircraft carrier, the damaging of a heavy enemy cruiser and the sinking of a Japanese destroyer. His daring initiative and his successful accomplishment of a hazardous mission were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
