Several months after selection for captain, Pirie informed me that I was ranked number one on the 1961 edition of the carrier list. He asked me if I was interested in the USS Enterprise, the Navy’s only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, then under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. The first and second commanding officers had already been chosen and were undergoing their nuclear training with Vice Adm. Hyman G. Rickover. If I was interested and Rickover approved of me, I would be the third CO. If rejected by Rickover — as was the case with more than half of the captains nominated for the Enterprise to Rickover — I would still get command of a Forrestal-class carrier.
The selection process for nuclear-powered vessels, which up to recently had applied only to submarines, began with a panel of line officers convened in BuPers to select those officers best fitted for command of the type of nuclear-powered ship under consideration. Then that list was submitted to Admiral Rickover. Next, Rickover and his staff would interview the candidates and screen out those officers not considered technically capable of completing the rigorous nuclear-power training course or judged to be lacking the sense of commitment Rickover demanded of the people in his program. Finally, the Rickover-approved list would be sent to BuPers, where the prospective commanding officers would be picked from the Rickover-approved names after some further consultation with the OpNav deputy in charge of the appropriate warfare community. Not having gone to postgraduate training after graduating from the Naval Academy, I didn’t have a technical specialty, and a nuclear-power qualification seemed to be advantageous for the future Navy. So I told Pirie I was willing to put in the hours of study and training required to qualify for a nuclear ship command.
Pirie nominated me to Rickover for the Enterprise on the basis of my number-one ranking on the carrier list. Then, within a month, Adm. George Anderson, a naval aviator who had relieved Admiral Burke as CNO, told Pirie that the procedure for selecting the captain of the Enterprise would be changed. Admiral Anderson said that he, the CNO, would select the nuclear carrier skippers and simply tell Rickover to see that they were adequately trained. Furthermore, George Anderson had his own candidate in mind, another naval aviator with a brilliant record as a carrier aviator and a test pilot.
AIDE TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY
Another perturbation intruded to confuse the direction of my career. Rear Adm. Evan “Pete” Aurand was a legendary Navy fighter pilot, an ace in World War II who flew F6Fs against the Japanese. After the war he had been selected to command the Navy’s first operational carrier jet fighter squadron, equipped with F6U Pirates. The importance of this command and how well the squadron performed would have a significant influence on the future of naval aviation. Pete had done well in this assignment and upon leaving the squadron was selected to be naval aide to President Eisenhower. The three military aides to the president in those days were extremely influential. There was no national security advisor to the president, the SecDef was not technically fluent in military equipment and operations, and the military aides who traveled with the president were always on hand and available to respond to questions from the president on military matters. Pete Aurand was said to have sold Eisenhower on the importance of aircraft carriers.
After his stint in the White House, Pete had come to the Pentagon for duty in OpNav, the CNO head quarters staff. One morning in November 1960, after John F. Kennedy’s election but before his inauguration, Pete barged into Admiral Pirie’s outer office — as was his style — and motioned for me to follow him into the DCNO’s inner sanctum. With a minimum of prelude except to remind Pirie that he had been naval aide to President Eisenhower, Pete made his pitch: Jim Holloway should be nominated to serve as naval aide to President John F. Kennedy, who at this time would just be putting together his White House staff. Pete rattled off what he considered to be my qualifications: not too old or too young, a combat veteran decorated in both World War II and Korea, recent fleet experience, and a solid background in Navy plans and policy as the result of my current assignment in the E ring of the Pentagon. Moreover, he said, Jim is shorter than Kennedy and that is important for an aide who accompanies his senior to ceremonial affairs!
Pirie thought it was a great idea, and the two of them went to see the CNO, Adm. Arleigh Burke, who also agreed, although he hadn’t given it any previous thought. So the nomination, drafted by the chief of naval personnel and signed by the CNO, went to the White House. Up to this point, I had barely been consulted. When I asked, “What about the deep draft and carrier?” the answer was, “Jim, you have to make this sacrifice for the Navy. Once the tour as aide is over, you can name your next assignment.” Well, I thought, I can’t dream up a comeback comment for that.
So with my future up in the air, I went back to my desk outside the office for the deputy chief of naval operations for air warfare, arranging appointments, screening messages, and editing drafts of correspondence from 0715 to 2000 and waited for the decision.
The selection of Kennedy’s aide was a surprise, and it happened fast. A Naval Academy classmate of mine, Cdr. Tazwell T. Shepherd, USN, was chosen for the job by the White House. He had not been nominated by the Navy or the DoD. Taz, as he was known, had been a friend of mine since we had roomed together in an Annapolis boarding house as callow youths, seventeen years old, waiting to take our physical exams to get into the Naval Academy in 1939. Taz had been nominated by Senator Sparkman of Alabama, the senate majority leader, directly to JFK. The senator was Tazwell T. Shepherd’s father-in-law. It turned out to be a great assignment. Taz was perfect for what the president wanted in his naval aide, and he did a great job.