Edward Walter Eberle was an admiral in the United States Navy, who served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy and the third Chief of Naval Operations.
Background
Edward Walter Eberle was born on August 17, 1864 at Denton, Texas, the son of Joseph Eberle, who came as a youth from Switzerland and was a major in the Confederate army, and Mary Stemler of Georgia. He later settled at Fort Smith, Arkansas, whither his parents had moved in 1865.
Education
In his eighteenth year he entered the United States Naval Academy, graduating about the middle of his class in 1885.
Career
Of his sea duty in the decade following, the most profitable, as a rigorous training in old-style seafaring, was three years of charting and survey work in the Fish Commission steamer Albatross, off Cape Horn, Alaska, and the west coast of the United States.
After duty at the Naval Academy and promotion in 1896 to lieutenant (junior grade), he served three years in the Oregon, making the famous cruise around the Horn in the Spanish-American War and commanding her forward turret at Santiago. Later, at Manila, when Capt. Barker of the Oregon succeeded Dewey in command of the Asiatic Squadron during the Philippine Insurrection, he made Eberle his flag lieutenant and acting chief of staff.
A specialist in ordnance, Eberle, then aide to the superintendent at the Naval Academy, wrote the first modern manual of Gun and Torpedo Drills for the United States Navy, and in 1901-02 was gunnery officer of the Indiana. Again flag lieutenant for Admiral Barker, in the Atlantic Fleet (1903 - 05), he drew up the first instructions and code for wireless on naval vessels.
After study at the War College in 1905, and two years’ service as recorder of the Board of Inspection and Survey, he accompanied the world cruise of 1907-08 as executive of the Louisiana as far as San Francisco, where he became commandant of the Training Station, 1908-10.
During the next two years he commanded the Wheeling on a voyage around the world via Alaska, Japan, and the Mediterranean. Captain’s rank came to him in 1912 while he was commanding the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet, in which he developed the use of smoke screens and the employment of aircraft against submarines.
In the summer of 1914 he was senior officer at Santo Domingo during revolutionary disturbances, in which the navy was engaged in protecting property and arranging a settlement. As superintendent he administered the Naval Academy, September 1915-January 1919, with marked success through the period of wartime expansion, when classes were tremendously increased, courses compressed, and many reserve officers were in training.
In 1919-21 he commanded divisions of the Atlantic Fleet, and from June 1921 to June 1923, the Pacific Fleet, known after reorganization in December 1922, as the Battle Fleet.
After this second highest sea command, his general popularity and a belief in his sound judgment and tact in dealing with political leaders prompted his promotion to the highest shore office, that of chief of naval operations, which he held from July 1923 to November 1927, a period when special problems were raised by the expeditionary forces in China and Nicaragua.
Following a year on the Navy General Board he retired, August 17, 1928. His death, at the Naval Hospital, Washington, came from an infection above the ear, the result of an injury years before.
Achievements
Personality
Not a bookish man or a great reader, Eberle was successful chiefly because of his remarkable grasp of his profession in its every detail, combined with ability to win the trust and devotion of his subordinates. His whole life was in his work, and to his high rank he brought a frank manliness and a poise of manner which made him esteemed both within and without the service.
Connections
In 1889, Eberle married Tazie Harrison of San Francisco, a relative of President William Henry Harrison. They had one son, Edward Randolph Eberle, who also served as a naval officer.