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Captain George Andrew Alexander
35th Naval Governor of Guam
Alexander served as the Governor of Guam from June 21, 1933 to March 27, 1936. He supported the local effort to obtain United States citizenship for all residents of Guam, sending a petition requesting the right and signed by 2,000 Guamanians to the President of the United States. He revolutionized the Guam legal system, replacing old Spainish-style laws with the Code of Guam, a set of laws based on the California Codes. Though the Guam Museum opened in 1933, Alexander officially made it a government institution by executive order. Though the government of Guam recommended him for promotion to Rear Admiral, he retired from the Navy as a Captain. During WWI he commanded the USS Yacona providing Atlantic convoy service. His last command at sea was the USS Arizona BB-39.
Memories Commanding Officer, USS Yacona (SP-617), 1917-1921. Previously the civilian steam yacht Yacona (ex-Gem, ex-Amelia, 1899)
USS Yacona, a 527 gross ton patrol vessel, was built in 1898 at Kinghorn, Scotland, as a civilian steam yacht. After being called Cem and Amelia in her early years, she was renamed Yacona and had this name when acquired by the U.S. Navy late in September 1917. Placed in commission in December 1917, she briefly operated along the U.S. northeastern coast until late February 1918, when she began her first Atlantic escort mission. Though suffering storm damage early in the voyage, Yacona reached Bermuda at the beginning of March and helped shepherd a group of submarine chasers and other vessels to the Azores during April, returning to Bermuda in May. She completed a second escort mission from Bermuda to the Azores and back before steaming to the U.S. in July to undergo repairs. A third round-trip to the Azores occupied Yacona from early September into November 1918.
The Armistice ended the First World War's fighting as Yacona arrived back in the U.S. She spent the rest of the year attached to an Atlantic Fleet battleship division and after January 1919 was inactive at New London, Connecticut. Decommissioned in June 1919, Yacona was laid up until October 1920, when she was recommissioned. At the beginning of March 1921 she began a long voyage to the Philippines, by way of Bermuda, the Azores, the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. USS Yacona reached Manila in mid-July. She was placed out of commission later in that month and transferred to the Philippine Government.
