Morton T. Seligman
Morton T. Seligman (July 1, 1895 – July 9, 1967) was an American naval aviator. A two-time recipient of the Navy Cross, Seligman was involved in a security breach in 1942 which brought to an end his promising naval career and forced his retirement in 1944.
Morton Tinslar Seligman was born on July 1, 1895, in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a family of New Mexico pioneers.
Seligman graduated from the
In 1940 Seligman was a technical advisor in a major Hollywood movie production, Flight Command. Promoted to Commander, he became the executive officer of the USS Lexington in 1941. He served in that post through the Battle of the Coral Sea in which the Lexington was sunk after which he was awarded a gold star decoration for his Navy Cross for his service in that action, in lieu of a second award of the Navy Cross. Seligman was credited with effective management of the ship's damage control parties in an ultimately hopeless effort, allowing the ship to be abandoned in an orderly manner with relatively small loss of life.[3] He was one of the last men to leave the ship.
Tribune incident
Many of the survivors of the Lexington were repatriated back to the United States aboard the USS Barnett. Among the Barnett's passengers was Australian-American journalist Stanley Johnston, who had been the sole journalist present aboard the Lexington during the Coral Sea action. Reporting for the Chicago Tribune, Johnston was on his way back to file his stories about those events. Seligman knew Johnston and may have shared a cabin with him aboard the Barnett. Johnston obtained access to a fleet dispatch containing an intelligence estimate of Japanese forces immediately before the 1942 Midway action that indicated clear foreknowledge of Japanese intentions and movements, a document to which Seligman had access. Johnston's subsequent story in the Tribune raised alarm in the White House and Navy that the Japanese, reading the story, would realize that their codes were broken and that they would change ciphers.[3][4]
At the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who viewed the Tribune and its publisher as an enemy, and Secretary of the Navy
Although promotion was denied Seligman on active service, on his retirement Seligman was granted a "tombstone promotion" to Captain. In 1945 he was a technical advisor on the movie A Bell for Adano. Seligman died at age 71 at the Naval Hospital Balboa in San Diego on July 9, 1967. He was survived by his wife Adelia (September 14, 1898 – July 1, 1981) and his mother.[1] Seligman and his wife are interred at Santa Fe National Cemetery in New Mexico.[5]
References
- ^ a b c "Services Planned for Capt. Seligman". San Diego Union. July 11, 1967.
- ^ Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps (PDF). Bureau of Naval Personnel. 1 July 1938. p. 54. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
- ^ a b c Brennan, Lawrence B. (January 2013). "Spilling the Secret – Captain Morton T. Seligman, U.S. Navy (Retired), U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1919". navyhistory.org. Naval Historical Foundation. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ Ruane, Michael E. (June 5, 2017). "Unsealed 75 years after the Battle of Midway: New details of an alarming WWII press leak". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
- ^ "Seligman, Morton T". Nationwide Gravesite Locator. National Cemetery Administration. Retrieved 1 June 2020.