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Contact Info
Home Town Helena, MT
Last Address San Diego, CA
Date of Passing Oct 01, 1966
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
Navy Cross Awarded for actions during the World War Action Date:World War I Service:Navy Rank:Lieutenant Commander Company:Commanding Officer Division:U.S.S. Remlik & U.S.S. Lamson Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander Donald Bradford Beary, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. REMLIK and the U.S.S. LAMSON, engaged in the important, exacting, and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested by enemy submarines and mines, protecting vitally important convoys of troops and supplies through these waters, and in offensive and defensive action, vigorously and unremittingly prosecuted against all forms of enemy naval activity during World War I.
This ribbon does not rate any devices for subsequent awards
Details Behind Award
On 14 March 1943 the Fleet Operational Training Command, Atlantic Fleet was formally established, with Rear Admiral Donald B. Beary in command. Beary, known as "Red" to his fellow Naval Academy graduates of the Class of 1910, came to the new assignment from a seventh-month stint as Commandant of the Naval Operating Base in Iceland. He was the perfect choice for this exacting job. A member of the Navy's Gun Club who had earned a PG degree in electrical engineering at Columbia, he had been known since his Midshipman days as a man who possessed drive above all else.
During the year-and-a-half he served as COTCLANT, Beary successfully administered the creation and operation of a wide variety of training facilities along the U.S. East Coast, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and on Culebra Island, Puerto Rico. These included such esoteric facilities as Anti-Aircraft Training Centers and the Anti-Aircraft Training Afloat program on board U.S.S. Wyoming, the Combat Information Center, Group Training Center in Norfolk, the Anti-Submarine Warfare Unit in Norfolk, the Fleet Sonar School in Key West, and the Minecraft Training Center in Little Creek, Virginia. In all during his time in command, Admiral Beary directed the training of more than 1,000,000 officers and men of the United States Fleet and supervised the shakedown or refresher training of some 5,000 vessels.
It is not surprising, therefore, that in the citation for the Distinguished Service Medal he was awarded in February 1945 for his accomplishments, he was singled out as a "resourceful and aggressive administrator" who was responsible for "the high state of battle proficiency and readiness for action maintained by the vessels under his command."
