Everything about William Anderson Naval Officer totally explained
William Robert Anderson (
June 17 1921 –
February 25 2007) was an officer in the
United States Navy, and a
U.S. Representative from
Tennessee from
1965 to
1973.
Early life and naval career
Anderson was born in
Humphreys County, Tennessee in the rural community of
Bakerville, south of
Waverly. He graduated from the former Columbia Military Academy in
Columbia, TN in
1938, and from the
United States Naval Academy in
1942.
Anderson's service in
World War II was distinguished. He was awarded the
Bronze Star and several other combat decorations from participation in a total of eleven combat
submarine patrols. He was selected by
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover to be the second skipper of the first working nuclear submarine to be placed into service, the
USS Nautilus, and was its commander from
1957 to
1959. Anderson and his crew received international notice when the
Nautilus became the first submarine to sail successfully under the polar ice cap surrounding the
North Pole.
That transit was completed under direct orders of President
Dwight D. Eisenhower and under extreme secrecy and was in direct response to the launch of the
Sputnik satellite by the Russians. The president felt such a display of technological and military capability would offset the advantage won by the Soviets with Sputnik. The voyage by Anderson and his crew led the way for other submarine exploration beneath the ice cap and gave a decided military advantage to the U.S. Anderson received the
Legion of Merit from President Eisenhower for leading his crew and ship on this historic mission.
Author
He wrote a 1959 book about his journey under the North Pole,
Nautilus 90 North, co-written with Clay Blair Jr. An updated and more complete book about the North Pole transit, "The Ice Diaries," with co-author Don Keith, was completed just before Anderson's death. The book features previously classified information and many details not available for the first book.
Political career
Upon retiring from the Navy, Anderson entered
politics. He mounted an independent campaign for
governor of Tennessee in
1962, finishing second to former
Democratic governor
Frank G. Clement. While the race wasn't particularly close, he made several important political contacts and provided Clement with his main competition outside of the
Republican stronghold of
East Tennessee.
In
1964 Anderson entered the Democratic
primary to replace
Sixth District Congressman
Ross Bass, who was running for the
United States Senate to finish the term of the late
Estes Kefauver, and won both the nomination and the subsequent
general election. (Fellow retired naval officer
George W. Grider was elected to the
Ninth District seat, in the
Memphis area, on the same day.) Anderson was reelected three times. He only received less than 70 percent of the vote in
1968, when
Richard Nixon won the state.
Anderson proved to be somewhat more
liberal than expected for a naval veteran representing a largely rural district in western and central Tennessee. In fact, in the Tennessee congressional delegation of that time, only
Richard Fulton of the neighboring
5th District (
Nashville) had a more liberal voting record. Anderson was well-regarded in some Democratic circles and was sometimes mentioned as potentially having a bright future, with some even suggesting him as a potential
vice presidential nominee in
1972 based largely upon his military record.
However, Anderson's independent gubernatorial race and his
progressive tendencies hadn't been forgotten by many of his fellow Democrats, particularly in the
General Assembly. Tennessee was slated to lose a congressional district as a result of
reapportionment following the
1970 census, and Anderson's district was considerably reconfigured prior to the
1972 elections. Anderson's district received a large area around Memphis where Republican influence was strong and growing, while simultaneously losing some solidly Democratic areas.
Observers felt that if there was a vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the Tennessee congressional delegation in 1972, it was probably Anderson. This came to pass in the gigantic Republican landslide of 1972, in which President Nixon carried 49 of 50 states and 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties, and Anderson lost to Republican state personnel commissioner
Robin Beard by 12 points. Since then, the district—renumbered the
Seventh District in 1983 —has become the state's most Republican region outside of East Tennessee, and Democrats have only made three serious bids for the seat.
Anderson retired from public life. He served as an officer with the Public Office Corporation, and lived in
Alexandria, Virginia. He died on
February 25 2007, after living in
Leesburg, Virginia during the final years of his life.
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