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Home Town Aransas Pass, Texas
Last Address Riverside National Cemetery Riverside CA
Malcolm E. Wolfe stood watch on the deck of a Navy destroyer on a quiet evening, diverting his eyes into a textbook.
Given a choice, he would have been in a college classroom, pursuing an education that had been denied him for lack of money.
A first class petty officer noticed his interest in the book and asked if he had ever heard of the U.S. Naval Academy. He hadn't.
But by the end of the evening, the Texas farm boy who had graduated at the top of his high school class was filing an application for a Naval Academy entrance exam.
The application, radio-telegraphed from the ship, reached its destination minutes before the midnight deadline.
Malcolm E. Wolfe passed the fleet examination, spent a year in a preparatory school and graduated in the 1941 Naval Academy class.
He would go on to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals as a World War II fighter pilot during a naval career that spanned 31 years.
He was a Pearl Harbor Survivor and entered flight training after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was assigned to Bombing Squadron 10 aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid in 1944.
On his squadron's first combat mission, Capt. Wolfe's executive officer was shot down. Capt. Wolfe took the wounded officer's command and went on to earn a Distinguished Flying Cross for action against Japanese forces in the Inland Sea in March 1945.
He was cited for his attack on two Japanese battleships and a carrier amid anti-aircraft fire and the threat of enemy aircraft.
In 1947, Capt. Wolfe returned to his first love, aircraft, as a test pilot of some of the Navy's first jets. He was the 23rd aviator to test-fly the McDonnell Douglas Banshee at Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center in Maryland.
Capt. Wolfe returned to the Naval Academy in 1956 to direct the academic division of the Executive Department, which preceded the Naval Leadership and Law Department.
During his two-year assignment, he hired the department's first civilian instructors and wrote "Selected Readings in Naval Leadership" and "Naval Leadership."
Translated for use by foreign navies, the books were especially popular in Japan and China. By 2002, more than 70,000 copies of "Naval Leadership" had been published in Japanese for use by the Japanese Maritime Defense Force.
In 1965, Capt. Wolfe retired from active duty as a member of the Pacific Fleet Board of Inspection and Survey at San Diego Naval Training Center, where he had begun his career as an enlisted man in 1934.
See: OBITUARY (biography) for more details.
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NAVAL ACADEMY SPECIAL AWARDS
Captain Malcolm E. Wolfe Naval Leadership Prize
The Captain Malcolm E. Wolfe Naval Leadership Prize is presented to that midshipman of the graduating class who is determined by the Commandant to stand highest in leadership, conduct and aptitude for commissioning. The award is funded by royalities from the sale of Naval Leadership, thanks to the generosity of the author, Captain Malcolm E. Wolfe, Class of 1941.
OBITUARY (biography) Capt. Malcolm E. Wolfe
Date
Not Specified
Last Updated: Sep 22, 2010
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OBITUARY Capt. Malcolm E. Wolfe, 87; WWII Navy fighter pilot
September 3, 2004
Malcolm E. Wolfe stood watch on the deck of a Navy destroyer on a quiet evening, diverting his eyes into a textbook.
Given a choice, he would have been in a college classroom, pursuing an education that had been denied him for lack of money.
A first class petty officer noticed his interest in the book and asked if he had ever heard of the U.S. Naval Academy. He hadn't.
But by the end of the evening, the Texas farm boy who had graduated at the top of his high school class was filing an application for a Naval Academy entrance exam.
The application, radio-telegraphed from the ship, reached its destination minutes before the midnight deadline.
Malcolm E. Wolfe passed the fleet examination, spent a year in a preparatory school and graduated in the 1941 Naval Academy class.
He would go on to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Air Medals as a World War II fighter pilot during a naval career that spanned 31 years.
Capt. Wolfe, diagnosed with cancer in fall 2002, died Sept. 3 at his Point Loma home. He was 87.
Baylor University had offered him a scholarship after he graduated from his Nagodoches, Texas, high school. "It would have covered the tuition, but he couldn't pay the rest," a son said.
As the youngest of nine children in the family of a tenant farmer, Capt. Wolfe had gone to school without shoes until the 10th grade. In the midst of the Depression, joining the military appeared to be his best option.
He entered flight training after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was assigned to Bombing Squadron 10 aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid in 1944.
On his squadron's first combat mission, Capt. Wolfe's executive officer was shot down. Capt. Wolfe took the wounded officer's command and went on to earn a Distinguished Flying Cross for action against Japanese forces in the Inland Sea in March 1945.
He was cited for his attack on two Japanese battleships and a carrier amid anti-aircraft fire and the threat of enemy aircraft.
After the war, Capt. Wolfe's first major mission was staff navigator of Operation High Jump, a Navy exercise in Antarctica led by Adm. Richard E. Byrd.
The mission, designed to prepare the U.S. military to fight the Soviet Union in polar conditions, involved 4,700 men on 13 ships and 33 aircraft and it pioneered the use of icebreakers and helicopters.
In 1947, Capt. Wolfe returned to his first love, aircraft, as a test pilot of some of the Navy's first jets. He was the 23rd aviator to test-fly the McDonnell Douglas Banshee at Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center in Maryland.
Capt. Wolfe returned to the Naval Academy in 1956 to direct the academic division of the Executive Department, which preceded the Naval Leadership and Law Department.
During his two-year assignment, he hired the department's first civilian instructors and wrote "Selected Readings in Naval Leadership" and "Naval Leadership."
Translated for use by foreign navies, the books were especially popular in Japan and China. By 2002, more than 70,000 copies of "Naval Leadership" had been published in Japanese for use by the Japanese Maritime Defense Force.
In 1965, Capt. Wolfe retired from active duty as a member of the Pacific Fleet Board of Inspection and Survey at San Diego Naval Training Center, where he had begun his career as an enlisted man in 1934.
Settling in Point Loma, he earned a master's degree and teaching credential at San Diego State College. Then he joined the faculty at Coronado High School, where he taught science and math for 12 years.
In retirement, Capt. Wolfe wrote his memoirs, which he titled "Splicing the Mainbrace." A detailed account of his naval career, it exceeded 400 pages and was published in 2003 by Authorhouse Publishing.
An avid camper, Capt. Wolfe enjoyed traveling throughout the country in recent years. He often spent winters in a mobile home.
Survivors include his wife, Elaine; daughter, Kathleen Rossi of Hemet; sons, Jeffrey Wolfe of Tulsa, Okla., and Thomas Wolfe of San Diego; five grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services were Sept. 11 at San Diego First Assembly of God. Interment was at Riverside National Cemetery.
