Existing comment:
Admiral Thomas C. Hart, USN (1877-1971)
by Albert K. Murray
Among the guest bedrooms in Buchanan House is the Hart Room, named for the 29th Superintendent, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, NA Class of 1897. The portrait was painted by one of the original World War II Navy Combat Artists. Hart served on USS Vixen in the Battle of Santiago in the Spanish-American War. During World War I, he commanded the submarine base at New London, the cruiser Chicago (CA 14), and Submarine Divisions Four and Five, operating against German U-boats in the Atlantic between Ireland and the Azores before reporting for duty as Director of Submarines in the Navy Department in July 1918. When World War II began, he was Commander-in-Chief Asiatic Fleet; and, after being evacuated from the Philippines in a submarine he became the allied naval commander in the Far East for a few months. Although retired for age, he continued to serve on the Board of Awards and the General Board. He was appointed as a US Senator from Connecticut in February 1945, filling for two years an unexpired vacant term. He was married to Caroline Brownson, the only woman who was both the daughter and the wife of Naval Academy Superintendents. |