Ralph U. Hyde

Captain Ralph Underhill Hyde (4 August 1894 – 12 May 1970) was a career Naval Officer who served in the United States Navy during World War I and World War II.

Education and World War I Service
Hyde was born in New York, NY in 1894. He graduated from the Trinity School in New York City in 1913, and the U.S. Naval Academy in 1917, and served aboard the USS Illinois (BB-7) as Gun Division Officer, Signal Officer, and Assistant Navigator, Watch and Division Officer, for the duration of the first world war.

Interwar Service
Lieutenant Hyde later served aboard the USS Chicago, the USS Rochester, and the USS Des Moines, before being selected as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to Rear Admiral Henry F. Bryan and later to Rear Admiral C. B. Morgan, Commanders of the Special Service Squadron, aboard the USS Dolphin. He later served aboard the USS Columbia, and the USS Langley when it was commissioned as the Navy's first aircraft carrier in March 1922.

In June, 1922, he married his fiance, Mariquita Penniman, of Quogue, NY.

In August, 1922, he was selected to serve aboard the presidential yacht, the USS Mayflower for two years during the term of President Warren G. Harding, as First Lieutenant, Watch and Division Officer, and Gunnery Officer.

Beginning in 1924, he served aboard the USS Arizona as Communications Officer, followed by a tour as aide to Rear Admiral A. W. Willard, the Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. In 1928, as a Lieutenant Commander, he became Executive Officer and Navigator on the destroyer, USS McFarland. And in 1930, he became Aide and Flag Secretary to Admiral Harley H. Christy on the USS Wyoming (BB-32).

After a stint as Officer in charge of Recruiting in Pittsburgh, he served at the Bureau of Navigation at the Navy Department under Admiral Frank B. Upham until 1933, when he became the commanding officer of the USS Wickes until 1936, with Lieutenant Milton E. Miles as his Executive Officer, during which time his ship was commended with E's for torpedo, depth charges, and gunnery, while operating out of San Diego. During this time, the famous "What-the-Hell" Pennant was created.

After this command, Commander Hyde became Assistant to the Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he also taught Seamanship and Navigation, and trained Reserve Naval Officers for duty in World War II.

World War II Service
In 1943, he was transferred to the Office of the Commander in Chief at the Pentagon for duty with the Joint Secretariat of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a liaison to the Office of Strategic Services. In 1944, Captain Hyde traveled to Algiers, North Africa; Bari, Italy; Cairo, Egypt; New Delhi, India; Chungking, China; and Colombo, Ceylon to observe OSS activities and coordinate with Area Commanders, reporting back to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He remained in his post in Naval Intelligence as Secretary of the Joint Intelligence Committee for JCS until he retired in 1947.

Postwar
Captain Hyde met with misfortune after his retirement in 1947, as his beloved wife, Skeets, died of cancer in November, 1948, his mother died in May, 1949, and he and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Betsy, contracted polio in August, 1949. Although he remarried, he was confined to a wheelchair until his death in 1970.