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First Name: Ralph

Last Name: Shifley

Birthplace: Mounds, IL, USA

Gender: Male

Branch: Navy (present)

Rating:

Middle Name: Louis



Date of Birth: 26 October 1910

Date of Death: 05 January 1995

Rank or Rate: Vice Admiral

Years Served:
Ralph Louis Shifley

   
Graduate, U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1933

Engagements:
•  World War II (1941 - 1945)

Biography:

Ralph Louis Shifley
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy

Ralph Louis Shifley was born on 26 October 1910 in Mounds, IL.

Shifley entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929, graduated in 1933, and was commissioned as an Ensign. He elected to pursue a naval aviation career and after completing flight school was designated a Naval Aviator in 1937.

At the outbreak of World War II, he was a Flight Instructor at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, FL. In June of 1943, he commanded Bombing Group 8 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill. In 1944 he was air commander aboard the Bunker Hill and took part in operations against Japanese forces in New Guinea, Saipan, Guam, the Palau's and the Philippines. Shifley was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism in the First Battle of the Philippine Sea while his Air Group was embarked in the carrier Bunker Hill.

By the end of World War II, he was Superintendent of Aviation Training at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, FL. From 1947-52, he served as Executive Officer and Operations Officer for several sea commands. Upon completion of the Naval War College course in 1952, he spent two years in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and then served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Commander Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. In 1956, he assumed command of the USS Badoeng Strait and the following year returned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations where he served as Senior Aide to the Chief of Naval Operations.

For the next year he commanded the attack aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt and after that command returned to Washington, DC. In 1961, he was promoted to Rear Admiral. Shifley was assigned as Commander Carrier Division Seven on 1 May 1962 and moved his flag to the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk on 31 July of that same year. At the same time he assumed command of Task Force 77.

Shipley retired from the Navy in 1971 as a Vice Admiral.

In Retirement

After retiring from the Navy, Shifley began working for the Stanwick Corporation as Vice Chairman of the Board. 

Death and Burial

Vice Admiral Ralph Louis Shifley died on 5 January 1995 in Washington, DC. He is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, MD.



Honoree ID: 3077   Created by: MHOH

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