Carl Vinson

Georgia's Father of the Two-Ocean Navy who chaired naval affairs for a quarter century.

Overview

Vinson served from 1914 to 1965, 50 years, the first House member to reach that mark. From the Naval Affairs and then Armed Services chairmanships, spanning 1931 to 1965 with brief interruptions, he pushed the navy from treaty-limited weakness to the two-ocean fleet that won the Pacific war, authoring the Vinson-Trammell Act and the 1938 and 1940 expansion acts. He shepherded the postwar defense establishment, the Pentagon's budget process, and the National Defense Education era buildup. The navy named a carrier for him during his lifetime, a rare honor for a living member of Congress.