John SYLVESTER

John "Jack" Sylvester was an officer in the United States Navy who served from the 1930s to the 1960s and rose to the rank of Vice Admiral.

Joining the fleet in 1926 Sylvester served in 1937 as flag lieutenant to Admiral Harry E. Yarnell commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and married Yarnell's daughter Ruth. Much of his career was spent in the Pacific or East Asia including postings to Shanghai, Tsingtao, Hong Kong andthe Philippines. He served as commanding officer of the Missouri (BB-63) from 18 October 1951 to 4 September 1952 while the battleship was serving as flagship to Rear Admiral James L. Holloway, Jr. the commander of the cruiser force Atlantic Fleet between deployments to the Korean War. Promoted to Rear Admiral in 1953 he was made special assistant to the chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project in California. In 1955 Sylvester served as Task Force commander for Operation Wigwam a test of an underwater detonation of a nuclear bomb. He served as CommanderAmphibious Forces Pacific Fleet from 1958 to 1960. From 1960 to 1965 he served as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Logistics and retiredin 1965 with the rank of Vice Admiral.

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