Rear Adm. Charles A. Curtze (1911-2007) attended the US Naval Academy, excelled in gymnastics and was selected but was not permitted by the Navy to attend the 1936 Summer Olympics in Hitler's Germany. Curtze was one of the fleet safety officers during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, who helped get the USS St. Louis safely out of port and to take some of the first actions of the war. Curtze received his masters in naval construction from MIT, served with the first American team with NATO, commanded the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, and served as Deputy Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Ships during the Vietnam War. Curtze and his superior at BuShips, Rear Adm. William A. Brockett, both resigned in a famous act of protest against Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's consolidation of power in the Pentagon.

See Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_A._Curtze

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