Leahy, William Daniel, FADM

William Daniel Leahy was an American naval officer and the first such officer ever to hold the rank of Fleet Admiral and the first ever to hold a five-star rank in the U.S. armed forces.

He was critical of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which in his eyes were "of no material assistance in our war against Japan". His feeling was that "in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

USS Leahy (DLG/CG-16) was the lead ship of a new class of destroyer in the United States Navy. Named for Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, she was commissioned on 4 August 1962 as DLG-16, a guided missile frigate, and reclassified as CG-16, a guided missile cruiser, on 30 June 1975.

Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa and educated at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1897. Midshipman Leahy was assigned to USS Oregon when she made her famous dash around Cape Horn in the spring of 1898 to participate in the Battle of Santiago during the Spanish-American War.

During the First World War Leahy was captain of the dispatch boat used by future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The two men became close friends for the rest of their lives.

After the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt decided he needed a senior military officer as personal adviser and point of contact with his three service chiefs. On July 6, 1942, Leahy was appointed Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Army and Navy, the President of the United States. Leahy was appointed the first US Fleet Admiral on December 15, 1944.