Elmo Russell Zumwalt, Jr. (1920-2000) was a career Navy officer who became the youngest chief of naval operations in U.S. history. As commander of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, he ordered the use of the chemical Agent Orange to defoliate the Mekong Delta. His son, who patrolled Vietnamese rivers for the Navy, died from the apparent effects of Agent Orange in 1988.

Elmo Russell (Bud) Zumwalt, Jr., the son of two physicians, Elmo Russell and Frances Zumwalt, was born at Tulare, CA, in the San Joaquin Valley, on November 29, 1920. He had a brother and two sisters. Zumwalt was educated at Tulare High School, where he was a top student, played football, and graduated in 1938. He went to Rutherford Preparatory School (1938-1939), considered a career as an Army physician, then entered the United States Naval Academy. Academically, he was in the top five percent of his class and...