Horacio Rivero Jr. (May 16, 1910 – September 24, 2000), was the first Puerto Rican and Hispanic four-star

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

, and the second Hispanic to hold that rank in the modern United States Navy, after the American Civil War Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801–1870). After retiring from the Navy, Rivero served as the U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1972–1974), and was also the first Hispanic to hold that position.

Early years

Rivero was born and raised in the city of Ponce, located in the southern coast of Puerto Rico, where he also received his primary and secondary education.

Military career

On June 20, 1927, he received an appointment from the Honorable Felix Cordova Davila, Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner to attend the United States Naval Academy. On June 4, 1931, he graduated third in a class of 441 from the U.S. Naval Academy in

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

, Maryland. Rivero's first assignment was aboard the . From 1932 to 1936 he served aboard the following ships: , , and . He earned his master's degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1940 and in 1941 married Hazel Hooper.

Dorr Dorr may refer to: * Dorr (surname) * Dorr, Iran, a village in Isfahan Province, Iran * Dorr Township, McHenry County, Illinois * Dorr Township, Michigan ** Dorr, Michigan See also * Door (disambiguation) * Dorr Rebellion * Wilmer Cutler P ...

, ''Navy Times'' 2004.

World War II

During World War II, he served aboard the as a gunnery officer and was involved in providing artillery cover for Marines landing on

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

, Marshall Islands,

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

, and Okinawa. For his service he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V". Rivero was reassigned to the . The ''Pittsburgh''s bow had been torn off during a typhoon and Rivero's strategies saved his ship without a single life lost. For his actions, he was awarded the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...

. He also participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, the attack on Bougainville in the Solomons, the capture of the

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this n ...

and a series of carrier raids on

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

. On June 5, 1945, Rivero participated in the first carrier raids against Tokyo during operations in the vicinity of

Nansei Shoto The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

. Rivero served as Assistant to the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations (Special Weapons) from August 1945 to February 1946. From February 1946 to June 1947, he served as a technical assistant on the Staff of Commander Joint Task Force One for Operation Crossroads, and was on the Staff of Commander, Joint Task Force Seven during the atomic weapons tests in Eniwetok in 1948.

Korean War

After the war, Rivero commanded the and during the Korean War the . Under his command, the ''Noble'' steamed to Korea to participate in the September Inchon

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

assault. Thereafter, the ''Noble'' assisted in the transport of U.S. and foreign troops and equipment to and from the Korean combat zone. In July 1953, the ''Noble'' participated in

Operation Big Switch Operation Big Switch was the repatriation of all remaining prisoners of the Korean War. Ceasefire talks had been going on between the North Korean, Chinese and United Nations Command (UNC) forces since 1951, with the main point of contention bein ...

, moving

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

North Korean prisoners from

Koje Do Geojedo or Geoje Island (also McCune–Reischauer: Kŏje Island) is the principal island of Geoje City, on the southern coast of Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea. It is joined to land by two bridges from nearby Tongyeong. Gohyeon is the ...

to Inchon pursuant to the armistice agreement. Rivero studied nuclear weaponry at the

National War College The National War College (NWC) of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. History The National War Colle ...

and in 1954 he became Assistant Chief of Staff for Naval Operations. In 1955, he was promoted to the rank of

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

and was a member of the Staff of the Commander in Chief, Western Atlantic Area. Between January 1958 and March 1959, he served as Commander Destroyer Flotilla One (COMDESFLOT ONE) headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...

was a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. On October 22, 1962, Admiral Rivero was the commander of the American fleet sent by President John F. Kennedy to set up a quarantine (blockade) of the Soviet ships in an effort to stop the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

from escalating into World War III. On October 28,

Soviet Premier The Premier of the Soviet Union (russian: Глава Правительства СССР) was the head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The office had four different names throughout its existence: Chairman of the ...

Nikita Khrushchev ordered the removal of the Soviet missiles in Cuba, and Kennedy ordered an end of the quarantine of Cuba on November 20, bringing an end to the crisis.Barlow, ''NHC'' 2003. Rivero was named Vice Chief of Naval Operations after the previous VCNO,

Claude V. Ricketts Claude Vernon Ricketts (February 23, 1906 – July 6, 1964) was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy, who served as the Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1961 to 1964. Biography Ricketts graduated from high school in Kansas in 19 ...

, died in office on July 6, 1964. On July 31, 1964, Rivero became the first Puerto Rican, and the second Hispanic to become a four-star admiral in the modern era US Navy.

Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, Rivero oversaw the day-to-day work of the Navy as the

Vice Chief of Naval Operations The vice chief of naval operations (VCNO) is the second highest-ranking commissioned United States Navy officer in the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy and functions as the principal deputy of the Chief of Naval Opera ...

. He was a stern supporter of a "brown-water navy," or riverine force, on the rivers of

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

NATO commander

From 1968 until his retirement from the Navy in 1972, Admiral Rivero was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's commander in chief of the Allied Forces in Southern Europe. He was responsible of the land, sea and air forces of five nations deployed in the Mediterranean area: Italy, Greece, Turkey, Britain and the United States. During his years as commander, some 215,000 of the 310,000 American troops in Europe were stationed in West Germany. At the time, Rivero believed that any withdrawal of United States troops from West Germany might affect the strength of the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.

Post-Navy career

From 1972 to 1975, Admiral Rivero served as the U.S. Ambassador to Spain under the administration of President

Richard M. Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

from 1972 to 1974. Rivero was also the Honorary Chairman of the American Veterans' Committee for Puerto Rico Self-Determination. Admiral Horacio Rivero died on September 24, 2000 and was buried with full military honors in the

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is a federal military cemetery in the city of San Diego, California. It is located on the grounds of the former Army coastal artillery station Fort Rosecrans and is administered by the United States Department o ...

of San Diego, California. He was survived by a daughter, two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and two sisters, both of Puerto Rico. On November 11, 2008, the government of Puerto Rico unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda the oil portrait of Admiral Horacio Rivero Jr.

Awards and recognitions

Among Admiral Rivero's decorations and medals were the following: On April 1, 2017, the United States Navy Reserve dedicated posthumously the Navy Operational Support Center NOSC building in Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico to Admiral Horacio Rivero Jr.

References

External links

American Veteran's Committee for Puerto Rico Self-Determination
Retrieved 2006-10-21. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivero, Horacio 1910 births 2000 deaths United States Navy admirals Vice Chiefs of Naval Operations Puerto Rican military officers United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy personnel of the Korean War United States Navy personnel of the Vietnam War MIT School of Engineering alumni Hispanic and Latino American diplomats Puerto Rican United States Navy personnel Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal United States Foreign Service personnel United States Naval Academy alumni Ambassadors of the United States to Spain Burials at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Military personnel from Ponce 20th-century American diplomats