The remains of Nimitz's seaplane following the crash landing off Naval Air Station Alameda during the summer of 1942.
Admiral Chester Nimitz’s Brush with Death on San Francisco Bay
Just nine days after the attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II, heads were already rolling in the Navy hierarchy. Within the White House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a decisive call about who would command more military power than any single leader in American history up to that point. Turning to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Roosevelt gave an order that would become part of Navy lore:
“Tell Nimitz to get the hell out to Pearl and stay there till the war is won.”
The man Roosevelt chose was Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. As the newly appointed Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet (CinCPac), Nimitz carried the responsibility of directing thousands of ships and aircraft and millions of sailors and Marines in the enormous task of halting Japan’s expansion and ultimately forcing its unconditional surrender. The hopes of a shaken nation rested on the shoulders of this one calm, deliberate Texan.
Yet mere months into the war, and just weeks after the crucial victories at the Coral Sea and Midway, Nimitz came within seconds of losing his life in San Francisco Bay.
A Near Disaster Over the Pacific
On June 30, 1942, Nimitz boarded a large Sikorsky XPBS-1 seaplane with key members of his staff. Their mission was both urgent and secret: to meet with the Chief of Naval Operations in San Francisco to plan the first American offensive of the Pacific War, the seizures of Guadalcanal, the Solomons, New Guinea, and Rabaul. Nimitz was also hand-carrying the highly classified after-action report from the Battle of Midway.
A powerful jet-stream pushed the seaplane ahead of schedule, causing it to reach Naval Air Station Alameda before patrol boats had finished clearing the landing zone of debris. Nimitz, relaxed and playing cribbage, sat with his back facing forward, the only thing that would ultimately save his life.
As the seaplane touched down, it struck a floating log “the size of a telephone pole.” The impact ripped open the hull and flipped the aircraft upside down. The copilot was killed instantly; nearly everyone else was injured.
Miraculously, the admiral survived—bruised, battered, but alive. The backward-facing seat, typically less desirable, had spared him a broken neck.
Mare Island: A Secret Visit
On July 3, Nimitz quietly slipped into the Mare Island Naval Hospital to check on the most severely injured members of his staff. The visit was classified; the Navy suppressed news of the crash for weeks to avoid revealing the whereabouts, and vulnerability, of the Pacific Fleet’s commander.
When the story finally broke, it came packaged with what reporters delighted in calling “classic Nimitz anecdotes.”
“Stick to Your Guns, Sailor.”
Immediately after the crash, Nimitz climbed onto the overturned wing to help oversee rescue operations. An 18-year-old seaman, not recognizing the drenched, blanket-covered man, barked at him:
“Commander, if you would only get the hell out of the way, maybe we could get something done around here!”
Nimitz quietly complied and boarded a crash boat. As it pulled away, he rose to continue observing the rescue. The coxswain snapped:
Only then did he notice the gold braid dripping from Nimitz’s sleeves. Mortified, the young sailor tried to apologize, but the admiral waved him off:
“Stick to your guns, sailor. You were quite right.”
Stories like these cemented Nimitz’s reputation as calm, unflappable, and unfailingly decent—even soaked to the bone.
Dorie Miller: A Hero Honored
Just one month before the crash, Nimitz had pinned the Navy Cross on Doris “Dorie” Miller, the mess attendant who became a national hero at Pearl Harbor. Without training, Miller manned an anti-aircraft gun aboard the sinking USS West Virginia and fired until his ammunition ran out.
Nimitz called Miller’s actions “the first instance of heroism by a man of his race in this conflict.”
Miller would later be killed in action when a torpedo detonated the magazine of his ship, the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay, in 1943.
A War Finished—and a Legacy Begun
Despite his close call at the very start of the Pacific War, Nimitz guided U.S. forces through island-hopping campaigns, vast naval battles, and the long march toward Japan. On September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, formally ending the war he had been ordered to “stay till it was won.”
Two years later, as Chief of Naval Operations, Nimitz received an unusual appeal: a young captain bypassed his chain of command to pitch a radical new idea, nuclear propulsion for naval ships. Nimitz supported the concept. That decision helped launch the Navy’s nuclear fleet, and Mare Island Naval Shipyard would become a major center for constructing and overhauling nuclear-powered warships throughout the Cold War.
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz pins the Navy Cross on Doris "Dorie" Miller at ceremony on board USS Enterprise, at Pearl Harbor just one month before the plane crash. Dorie Miller was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic action aboard the battleship WEST VIRGINIA during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship was heavily damaged by bombs, torpedoes, and resulting explosions and fires, but the crew prevented her from capsizing by counter-flooding several compartments. Instead, West Virginia sank to the harbor bottom as her surviving crew abandoned ship. Dorie Miller was killed later during the war when a Japanese submarine struck the after magazine on his ship detonating it.
The Mare Island Naval Hospital Complex during World War II. This is where the more severely injured from Nimitz’s Plane Crash were taken.
Four years before the crash the Sikorsky XPBS-1 (BuNo 9995) seaplane that Nimitz was riding in was photographed on the East Coast.
Despite his close call at the start of war, Nimitz finished what the Japanese had started. Here he is signing the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945. Two years later Nimitz was the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) when an upstart Navy captain jumped a non-supportive chain of command to appeal Nimitz to support a radical new concept for propulsion of naval warships. As a result, Mare Island Naval Shipyard was heavily engaged in the construction and overhaul of nuclear-powered warships throughout the Cold War.
