Harold Thomas Deutermann
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy

Harold Thomas Deutermann was born on 8 October 1903 in White Plains, NY.

Deutermann graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, in 1927. Following graduation, he served on the cruiser USS Richmond, the destroyers USS Humphries, USS Smith-Thompson, and on the cruiser USS Houston in the Asiatic Fleet. After a short tour of duty on the China Station, he returned and attended post-graduate school at the Naval Academy from 1934 to 1936.

He was assigned to the destroyer USS Preston for four years and by 1940 was assigned to the Navy Shipyard in Boston. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he served as Chief Engineer in the anti-aircraft cruiser USS San Juan, from early 1942 to August 1943, when he assumed command of the newly built destroyer USS Cogswell. In 1944 he took command of DeSDiv 132, and in early 1945, DesRon 50.

After the war he served as Commanding Officer of Naval Training Center in Bainbridge, MD, and then went to the Naval War College in Newport, RI. Following War College, he served as Senior Naval Advisor to the Argentine Navy in Buenos Aires for two years. In 1950 he was assigned as Assistant Director of the Fleet Operations Division, OPNAV, two weeks before the Korean War broke out. He commanded the cruiser USS Roanoke for one year before returning to OpNav in 1954.

He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1955, and served as Deputy Commandant of the ICAF in Washington, and then as ComCruDesFlot 2 in Newport, RI. In 1958 he was assigned as Commander of the Naval Reserve Training Command in Omaha, NE. In January of 1960, he was promoted to Vice Admiral and assumed command of the Second Fleet in Norfolk, VA, and replaced Vice Admiral Smedberg as Commander, Striking Fleet Atlantic. In Late 1961 he became the Chief of Staff to SACLANT, and in 1963, Commander Eastern Sea Frontier and the Senior Member of the United Nations Military Staff Committee in New York City. He retired from the Navy in 1965.

In Retirement

After retiring, he moved to Melrose, FL, in 1965 where he taught mathematics at the University of Florida in Gainesville before moving to San Diego, CA, in 1975.

Death and Burial

Vice Admiral Harold Thomas Deutermann died on 30 June 1996 in San Diego, CA. He is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, MD.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr