Hyman Rickover Accomplishments

Conceivably one of the most notable names in Naval History and around the yard at the United States Naval Academy is Admiral Hyman Rickover. Without his concepts and research, we would not be the Navy we are today. Rickover’s dedication to learning and working hard makes him one of the most memorable leaders in U.S. Naval History. From going to Submarine school, being assigned to the Manhattan Project, and retiring at the rank of Admiral, Hyman Rickover lived a life full of accomplishments.

Hyman Rickover was born on January, 1900 to a poor Polish couple. He moved to the United States in 1904 with his family for his father to own a business. Rickover never had a stable place to grow up, as he moved often due to his father’s inability to

As a Midshipman, Rickover experienced decent academic success but he was not well prepared for the academy life prior to arriving. Duncan writes: “Rickover felt that the Academy had done a good job in preparing him for the Navy of that day.”

Rickover graduated the Naval Academy in 1992, ranked 107th out of his class of 540. Upon commissioning, he spent 5 years total on the destroyer La Vallette and the battleship Nevada. On these vessels, he gained the reputation of “an intensely competitive officer who was always working, eager to accept responsibility, and determined to master his profession.” He was promoted to lieutenant in June of 1928. This was when Rickover began to realize that he loved learning and he decided to continue his education.

After earning his MS in Electrical engineering, he also went to Submarine school in 1930. This was the first step toward Rickover’s love for the nuclear aspect of the Navy. The next big step toward his future was his assignment to the Manhattan project, the project that eventually developed the first atomic bomb. This is when Rickover’s passion for the nuclear field took off. Upon returning from this assignment in September of 1947, he proposed that the Navy should have nuclear-propulsion program. In December of 1947, Admiral Nimitz recommend the program to the then Secretary of the Navy, and by 1951 the building

Eisenhower, the Nautilus went underway for the first in January 1955. Shortly after in 1956, the Navy decided to stop constructing diesel-electrical submarines and follow the plan Rickover had for nuclear propelled submarine. Many things took place over the coming years concerning the development of our nuclear warfare. Admiral Rickover went to the Soviet Union with President Nixon in 1959. He even at one point gave a speech to Congress about what he learned while in the Soviet Union. Rickover’s biggest achievement was possibly the passage of legislation in 1974 that made all U.S. Naval combat ships nuclear powered. This was only a year after he was promoted to