Robert Webster Cary Jr.

Before Robert Webster Cary Jr. became a rear admiral, a Medal of Honor recipient, and a combat commander in two world wars, he stood inside the engineering spaces of a stricken warship and held open a closing watertight door while scalding steam filled the compartment. Three sailors escaped because he refused to let the door close. It was January 21, 1915, and Cary had been a commissioned United States Navy officer for less than a year. That moment aboard USS San Diego would become one of the defining acts of courage in a naval career that lasted more than three decades.

Robert Webster Cary Jr. was born on August 18, 1890, in Kansas City, Missouri. After attending Westport High School, William Jewell College, and the University of Missouri, he entered the United States Naval Academy. Cary graduated from Annapolis with the Class of 1914 and was commissioned an ensign. His first assignments immediately placed him in an active fleet. The 1915 Navy Register records him aboard USS Maryland beginning July 6, 1914. Maryland was among the vessels officially credited with qualifying Mexican Service between April 28 and September 19, 1914, placing Cary aboard during the qualifying period for the Mexican Service Medal.

Within months, Cary had transferred to the armored cruiser USS San Diego, flagship of the Pacific Fleet. On January 21, 1915, an explosion ripped through the ship's firerooms near La Paz, Mexico. Five sailors were killed and seven were injured. Cary was taking boiler pressure readings when the explosion occurred. As electrically operated watertight doors began closing, he stopped one of them and held it open while steam escaped from the damaged boilers. Three trapped sailors passed through the opening to safety.

The official Medal of Honor citation leaves little doubt about the danger. It records that Cary held the door while escaping steam surrounded him, helped keep men in the adjoining fireroom at their stations despite the danger of additional boiler explosions, and later directed them into greater safety. The citation concluded that his conduct demonstrated extraordinary heroism and was "above and beyond the call of duty." Cary and Fireman Second Class Telesforo Trinidad were both awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the disaster.

Remarkably, Cary's Medal of Honor was not formally presented until June 16, 1934, nearly nineteen years after the explosion. By then he was no longer the newly commissioned ensign who had stood in the steam-filled fireroom. He was an experienced career officer whose courage had already been tested a second time in war.

During World War I, Cary served aboard destroyers operating in dangerous Atlantic waters. On November 7, 1918, only days before the Armistice, he was executive officer of USS Sampson when depth charges on the destroyer's stern broke loose during a heavy gale. The rolling explosives threatened serious damage and could have detonated if their safety mechanisms failed.

Cary went onto the exposed fantail with several enlisted sailors and helped secure the depth charges while heavy seas broke over the ship. His Navy Cross citation emphasized that the men faced two dangers at once, the possibility of an explosion and the possibility of being swept overboard. For this act of extraordinary heroism, Lieutenant Robert Webster Cary received the Navy Cross. His World War I service aboard Sampson also supported entitlement to the World War I Victory Medal with the Destroyer clasp, represented on the ribbon by a bronze star.

Between the world wars, Cary continued rising through the Navy and served in a succession of sea and shore assignments. By the opening years of World War II, his responsibilities had expanded far beyond the command of individual ships. An official Navy history of advance-base logistics identifies Captain R. W. Cary as a director within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and credits his organization with important work in developing the functional-component system used to plan, assemble, and deploy overseas naval bases. The same history records Cary pressing for a more flexible system to replace the earlier standardized LION, CUB, and ACORN base concepts. His contribution connected operational command with one of the less visible foundations of American naval power, the ability to build and sustain bases across enormous distances.

Cary returned to sea for some of the most demanding operations of his career. In February 1943 he assumed command of the light cruiser USS Savannah. Under Cary, Savannah participated in Mediterranean operations supporting the Allied advance into Europe, including the invasion of Sicily and the landings at Salerno, Italy. Her rapid-firing six-inch guns provided powerful naval gunfire support against enemy positions and armored forces ashore.

Then came September 11, 1943.

While Savannah operated off Salerno, a German Dornier bomber released a Fritz X radio-controlled glide bomb from high altitude. The weapon struck the roof of the cruiser's No. 3 turret, penetrated deep into the ship, and exploded in the lower ammunition-handling spaces. The blast opened the hull and caused catastrophic casualties. Naval History and Heritage Command records 197 members of Savannah's crew killed and another fifteen seriously wounded. Heroic damage control kept the cruiser afloat, and Savannah eventually reached Malta under her own power. Cary remained the commanding officer during the immediate aftermath of one of the most devastating precision-guided weapon attacks suffered by an American warship during World War II.

Cary's combat service did not end with Savannah. He next commanded USS Brooklyn, and in January 1944 he led a naval gunfire support group during the Allied assault at Anzio. It was for this operation that the surviving detailed citation for his fourth Legion of Merit is especially important. Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 329 records the award of a Third Gold Star in lieu of a Fourth Legion of Merit and praised Cary for taking his ships through heavily mined waters when Army forces ashore urgently required naval gunfire. The citation stated that he obtained maximum results from his ships' batteries and that his support contributed materially to the success of the operation. Naval History and Heritage Command independently identifies the Anzio decoration as Cary's fourth Legion of Merit.

Four awards of the Legion of Merit are therefore supported in the surviving record reviewed for this biography, represented on his ribbon by three gold stars. References to a fifth Legion of Merit exist in later historical material, including an Naval History and Heritage Command essay, but the fifth award order or citation has not yet been located. For that reason, the historically conservative reconstruction recognizes four verified awards rather than presenting the disputed fifth as established fact.

Cary's wartime service also brought foreign recognition. A U.S. Department of Defense biography reports that King George VI awarded him the British Distinguished Service Order during World War II. The award is strongly supported by contemporary reporting cited by the Department of Defense, although the original British award citation has not yet been located in the sources reviewed. It is