Samuel Eliot Morison is commissioned as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Morison is appointed Historian of U.S. Naval Operations, a position which Walter Muir Whitehill later says permitted him to move about the world at will. According to Morison, “As my position in the Navy was unprecedented, I had to move warily and gingerly to obtain co-operation from those who were doing the fighting.” His work results in a 15-volume history of the U.S. Navy in World War II. He retires from the Navy as a rear admiral in 1962.