Edmund B. Taylor

Vice Admiral Edmund Battelle Taylor (4 April 1904 – 30 April 1973) was an admiral in the United States Navy. During World War II he saw service in the fighting in the Pacific, including the Battle of Cape Esperance, in which his ship, the was sunk, the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. In the last months of the war he was the naval aide to the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal. After the war he commanded the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and was commander of the Antisubmarine Defense Force, Atlantic Fleet, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Edmund B. Taylor was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 4 April 1904, the son of Edmund Blanton Taylor and Rebecca Attwood (Battelle) Taylor. He had three brothers, two of whom joined the Navy; the other joined the United States Air Force, and a sister. When Taylor was a boy, the family moved to Lima, Ohio, where he attended Central High School. On 1921, he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he became an accomplished athlete. He was a member of the varsity football team, serving as its captain in 1924, and the varsity lacrosse team, in which he was All-American in 1924–25. He was also a member of the basketball and boxing teams. Taylor graduated on 4 June 1925, and was commissioned as an ensign. He joined the crew of the battleship , but returned to Annapolis in August 1926 as an assistant coach of the football team. On 1 September 1926, he married a local girl, Elizabeth Fay Valiant. They had two children, a daughter and a son. In 1929, he returned to sea duty on the battleship , where he was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on 4 June 1928. He joined the crew of the destroyer in April 1929, and then the destroyer in January 1931. In June 1932 he returned to Annapolis as an instructor in gunnery and an assistant coach of football and lacrosse. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 August 1934. In June 1935, he became executive officer of the destroyer and then, in December 1936, of the destroyer .