This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Michael D. Withers (Mike), OSCS
to remember
Hayward, John Tucker (Chick), VADM.
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Contact Info
Home Town Long Island
Last Address Atlantic Beach, Florida
Date of Passing May 23, 1999
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
A high school dropout and a batboy for the New York Yankees,
Vice Admiral John T. Hayward (1908 – 1999) began his naval career
in May 1925 as a recruit at the Newport Naval Training
Station. Subsequently he would graduate from the Naval
Academy, class of 1930, and enjoy a career marked by a driving
desire for professional excellence through education. In 1944,
Hayward joined the Manhattan Project at the China Lake Naval
Ordnance Test Station in California, where he helped to develop
the implosion components of the bomb dropped over Nagasaki,
Japan, on 9 August 1945. In the early 1950s, he helped plan
atomic weapons laboratory work at Los Alamos and Sandia and
worked for the foundation of the Livermore Laboratory program
in 1952, in close collaboration with Dr. Edward Teller. After
becoming a flag officer, he commanded the Navy’s first nuclear
power Task Force in USS Enterprise (CVN 65) in 1965. As the
thirty-fourth NavalWarCollege president, he introduced a dynamic
program to make over the Navy’s highest professional school along
the lines of civilian colleges. The focus on professional curriculum,
student requirements and faculty, was co-implemented also by a
program for appropriate facilities that would ultimately lead to the
construction of Spruance, Conolly and Hewitt Halls duringthe 1970s.
UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION HALL OF HONOR INDUCTED: 2004
The United StatesNaval Aviation Hall of Honor, located at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida, recognizes individuals for extraordinary achievements in US naval aviation. Since its inception in 1979, the Hall of Honor has enshrined 79 people representing every element of the naval aviation family: US Navy, US Marine Corps, US CoastGuard, Civilian and every naval warfare community. Selectees are chosen by a board appointed by the Director, Air Warfare Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, sponsor of the Hall of Honor, and approved by the Chief of Naval Operations.
1935-1937, 131X, Naval Air Station (NAS) Coco Solo, Panama
Coco Solo was a United States Navy facility, which operated a submarine base and a naval air station, that was established 6 May 1918. The site corresponds with modern-day Cativá in Panama. It was on the Atlantic Ocean (northwest) side of the Panama Canal Zone, near Colón, Panama and five C-class submarines were based there during 1914-1919.
US Senator John McCain was born in 1936 at a small Navy hospital at Coco Solo Naval Air Station.
The larger Coco Solo Hospital was constructed in the summer of 1941. The area containing it was transferred from the civil part of the Panama Canal Zone to the naval part when Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8981 on December 17, 1941. During World War II, Coco Solo also served as a Naval Aviation Facility, housing a squadron of P-38 Lightning aircraft.
By the 1960s, no US Navy vessels remained, only some support staff and housing. Coco Solo was also home to the Atlantic Side High School and Cristobal Junior and Senior High, which in the late 1970s was also the high school for Panamanians from Rainbow City. Also located in Coco Solo was the local commissary where Zonians would purchase food and clothing. At the far end of Randolph Road was Fort Randolph, unused except for military training exercises, and where the Fort Randolph Riding Club was located as used by the Canal Zone Horsemen's Association.
Until the mid-1990s, the town site of Coco Solo was used by the civilian employees of the Panama Canal as a residential area. Navy communications operations at the nearby Galeta Island facility were conducted as well.
After the turnover of the Panama Canal to Panamanians in 1999, US military activity ceased at both Coco Solo and Galeta Island.
