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37-668: The Two-Ocean Navy Act , also known as the Vinson–Walsh Act , was a United States law enacted on July 19, 1940, and named for Carl Vinson and David I. Walsh , who chaired the Naval Affairs Committee in the House and Senate respectively. In what was then the largest naval procurement bill to date in U.S. history, it increased the size of the United States Navy by 70%. Modest naval expansion programs had been implemented by

74-559: A color in his honor: reference 25630, "Carl Vinson Blue." The color can be approximated by hexadecimal color #B1C1C1 Park Trammell Park Monroe Trammell (April 9, 1876 – May 8, 1936), was an American attorney and politician from the state of Florida . Trammell represented Florida in the United States Senate from 1917 until his death in 1936. As chair of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee , Trammell

111-487: A junior member of the committee could ask to one question per year of service on the committee. As chairman, Vinson oversaw the modernization of the military as its focus shifted to the Cold War . He was also committee chair when Congress authorized the procurement of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carriers , starting with USS  Enterprise  (CVN-65) in the late 1950s. A staunch segregationist, Vinson voted against

148-635: A long illness. Vinson did not have children, but his great-nephew, Sam Nunn , served as a Senator from Georgia for more than 24 years. Nunn followed in his great uncle's footsteps, serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee for nearly his entire tenure in the Senate. Sam Nunn's daughter, Michelle Nunn , ran unsuccessfully for one of Georgia's U.S. Senate seats in 2014. Vinson considered his longtime assistant Charles Tillman Snead, Jr. his surrogate son, and Snead's wife, Molly Staeman Snead,

185-514: A position held for four years until the Republicans briefly returned to the majority for a single congressional term after the 1952 elections. After the Democrats retook congress in the 1954 midterms, Vinson again became chairman, a position he held until his retirement in 1965. In this role, Vinson adopted a committee rule that came to be known as the "Vinson rule", which limited the number of questions

222-414: A state tax commission in order to equalize property assessments across various counties. Trammell's governorship was also known for his blatant racism, endorsing racial segregation and overlooking the lynching of African Americans . While Trammell was state attorney general, none of the 29 lynchings of black men during his term were prosecuted, nor were the 21 that occurred during his governorship. With

259-417: Is also named after him, together with the related Mount Vinson and Vinson Plateau . Carl Vinson served 26 consecutive terms in the U.S. House, rarely running against significant opposition. He served for 50 years and one month, a record that stood until 1992, when the mark was surpassed by Jamie Whitten of Mississippi . For his commitment, Vinson was awarded the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award by

296-601: Is named for Vinson. The University of Georgia hosts the Carl Vinson Institute of Government . Athens, Georgia , is the site of Carl Vinson Park. Carl Vinson Parkway is located in Warner Robins, Georgia . Georgia Military College formerly had a barracks named for him. It was razed in the mid-2000s. Vinson Hall Retirement Community in McLean, Virginia , is named after Carl Vinson. US Federal Standard 595 names

333-509: Is used to house the geriatric population of the institution. Trammell married Virginia Darby on November 21, 1900. They were married until her death in 1922. He later married Beatrice Padgett, a divorced woman with a son, in 1934. Trammell had no children of his own with either woman. His great-nephew is Jeffrey Trammell . Trammell was a member of the Freemasons , the Knights of Pythias , and

370-537: The 1912 gubernatorial election , Trammell ran to succeed Gilchrist as Governor of Florida . After securing the Democratic nomination, Trammell defeated four other candidates in the general election, receiving 80% of the vote. His closest competitor was Socialist Thomas W. Cox. As governor, Trammell endorsed a law in the Florida Legislature that would control spending in election campaigns, and also established

407-652: The 1964 Civil Rights Act and in 1956, signed "The Southern Manifesto" . Other Southern politicians signed this in resistance to the ruling by the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregated public education was unconstitutional, and that states needed to integrate their public schools. Vinson did not seek re-election in 1964 and retired from Congress in January 1965. Vinson married Mary Green of Ohio in 1921. She died in 1949 after

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444-649: The Fifteenth Amendment . During his tenure in the U.S. House, Vinson was a champion for national defense and especially the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps . He joined the House Naval Affairs Committee shortly after World War I and became the ranking Democratic member in the early 1920s. He was the only Democrat appointed to the Morrow Board , which reviewed the status of aviation in America in

481-929: The Florida State Archives . In 1955, the Lakeland Public Library building was named the Park Trammell Building. It now houses the Greater Lakeland Chamber of Commerce. Built in 1955, the Park Trammell Building is a nine-story low-rise building in Tampa, which houses the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. The Park Trammell Building at the Florida State Mental Hospital in Chattahoochee, Florida , dedicated in 1956,

518-647: The Great Depression , Trammell joined the Conservative Coalition , a group of conservative congressmen opposed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal , claiming it was too liberal , despite his overall support for Roosevelt. Opinions on the New Deal were additionally changing across the South, with many Southern Democrats who initially supported the legislation beginning to vote against it. In Florida,

555-577: The House Armed Services Committee (this consolidation mirrored the establishment of the Department of Defense when the old Departments of War and of the Navy were consolidated). When the Republicans won control of Congress in the 1946 election , Vinson served as ranking minority member of the committee for two years before becoming chairman in early 1949, when the Democrats were again in majority;

592-704: The Third Vinson Act of 1940 (which was essentially a mere prelude to the Two-Oceans Act that followed a month later), as well as the Two-Ocean Navy Act of 1940. The ambitious program called for by this series of laws helped the U.S. Navy as the country entered World War II , as new ships were able to match the latest ships from Japan. At the end of World War II, Congress had authorized four Naval four-star officers to be promoted to Fleet Admiral . A staunch partisan of Admiral William Halsey, Jr. , Vinson blocked

629-691: The United States Army during the Spanish-American War . Trammell served in the Quartermaster Corps , and was stationed in Tampa, Florida . After the war, Trammell enrolled at Cumberland University , graduating in 1899. He was admitted into the Florida Bar the same year. Trammell, a Democrat , was elected mayor of Lakeland in 1900 and re-elected to a second term in 1901. In 1902, Trammell

666-753: The United States Military Academy . In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Vinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Special Distinction , the highest award the President can give to a civilian. During his own tenure in the House, Johnson had served for years as a junior member of the House Naval Affairs Committee under Vinson. The Department of Veterans' Affairs Medical Center in Dublin, Georgia , serving veterans in Central and Southern Georgia,

703-683: The Vinson–Trammell Act of 1934 and the Naval Act of 1938 . In early June 1940, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that provided an 11% increase in naval tonnage as well as an expansion of naval air capacity. On June 17, a few days after German troops conquered France , Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark requested four billion dollars from Congress to increase the size of the American combat fleet by 70%, adding 257 ships amounting to 1,325,000 tons. On June 18, after less than an hour of debate,

740-400: The House of Representatives by a 316–0 vote authorized $ 8.55 billion (equivalent to $ 146 billion today) for a naval expansion program, that put emphasis on aircraft. Rep. Vinson, who headed the House Naval Affairs Committee, said its emphasis on carriers did not represent any less commitment to battleships, but "The modern development of aircraft has demonstrated conclusively that the backbone of

777-517: The Navy today is the aircraft carrier. The carrier, with destroyers, cruisers and submarines grouped around it[,] is the spearhead of all modern naval task forces." The Two-Ocean Navy Act was enacted on July 19, 1940. The Act authorized the procurement of: The expansion program was scheduled to take five to six years, but a New York Times study of shipbuilding capabilities called it, "problematical" unless proposed "radical changes in design" were dropped. Carl Vinson USS  Carl Vinson ,

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814-703: The Treasury Department Committee from 1917 until 1919, and of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee from 1933 until his death in 1936. Trammell died at his home in Washington, D.C. , on May 8, 1936. He is buried in Lakeland's Roselawn Cemetery. Trammell's senatorial papers were donated to the Lakeland Public Library and the University of Florida after his death. His gubernatorial papers reside in

851-687: The Vinson–Trammell Navy Act was provided by the Emergency Appropriations Act of 1934 . This was necessary as during the previous administration, not a single major warship was laid down and the US Navy was both aging and losing ground to the Japanese Navy . Japan repudiated the naval treaties in late 1934. Vinson later was primarily responsible for additional naval expansion legislation, the Naval Act of 1938 ("Second Vinson Act") and

888-549: The mid-1920s. In 1931, Vinson became chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. In 1934, Vinson helped push the Vinson–Trammell Act, along with Democratic Senator Park Trammell of Florida . The bill authorized the replacement of obsolete vessels by new construction and a gradual increase of ships within the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and London Naval Treaty of 1930. Initial funding for

925-504: The nomination of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance several times, although the majority thought him more deserving, to ensure that Halsey got the fourth billet. Congress eventually responded by passing an unprecedented act that specified that Spruance would remain on a full admiral's pay once retired until his death. Following World War II, the House Naval Affairs Committee was merged with the Military Affairs Committee to become

962-544: The race was mostly a competition between Trammell and Pepper, a social liberal , the latter three candidates pulled enough votes from Trammell to send the race into a runoff election between Trammell and Pepper. Trammell defeated Pepper in the runoff, winning by just a 2% margin. Trammell was unopposed in the general election. Earlier in 1934, Trammell co-sponsored the Vinson-Trammell Act, along with House Naval Affairs Committee Chair Carl Vinson , which authorized

999-496: The ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment on April 8, 1913, U.S. senators were to be popularly elected, rather than being elected by their state legislatures. Trammell ran for the U.S. Senate in the 1916 election , defeating incumbent Nathan P. Bryan in the Democratic primary. He went on to defeat his Republican opponent, newsman William R. O'Neal, with nearly 83% of the vote. During his tenure as senator, Trammell

1036-524: The replacement of obsolete ship by construction of new ships in order to compete with the Japanese Empire . During his time in the Senate, Trammell was often referred to as the most useless member of the body, having missed 642 out of 3,168 roll call votes across his entire tenure. Despite this, he was still popular among Florida voters. Trammell was the chairman of the Senate Expenditures in

1073-410: The test of voters' approval of the New Deal was the Democratic primary of the 1934 U.S. Senate election , in which Trammell, who generally ran unopposed in the primaries, faced the stiffest competition of his entire career. Trammell faced former State Representative Claude Pepper , attorney Charles A. Mitchell, State Senator James F. Sikes, and Florida Democratic Committeewoman Hortense K. Wells. Though

1110-608: The third Nimitz -class aircraft carrier , is named after him. Vinson was born in Baldwin County, Georgia , where he attended local schools and Georgia Military College . He graduated with a law degree from Mercer University in 1902 and was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order . After some years of practice, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1908. After losing a third term following redistricting, he

1147-577: Was Vinson's wife's nurse for 34 years. Snead's son and grandchildren maintained this familial bond to Vinson until his death in 1981. Vinson returned to Baldwin County, Georgia , where he lived in retirement until his death on June 1, 1981. He is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia . At the time of his death, Vinson was the last living member of the House of Representatives who

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1184-453: Was appointed as judge of the Baldwin County court. Following the sudden death of U.S. Senator Augustus Bacon , Representative Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia's 10th congressional district was nominated to fill Bacon's Senate seat. Vinson announced his candidacy for Hardwick's seat in Congress. Vinson defeated three opponents. Vinson was the youngest member of Congress (30 years old) when he

1221-740: Was elected to the Florida House of Representatives , representing Polk County . He served in the Florida House until 1904, when he was elected to the Florida Senate for Polk County. From 1905 until 1907, Trammell was the President of the Florida Senate . He resigned from the senate the following year, and returned to private practice. In 1909, Trammell was appointed to serve as the 19th Florida Attorney General by Governor Albert W. Gilchrist . In

1258-581: Was essential in the creation of several laws that revitalized the United States Navy . Trammell previously served as the Governor of Florida and Florida Attorney General . Trammell was born on April 9, 1876, in Macon County, Alabama . When he was a young child, Trammell and his parents moved to a citrus farm near Lakeland, Florida . Trammell attended Vanderbilt University in 1898, before enlisting in

1295-517: Was not afraid to deviate from his party. In 1916, Trammell, a member of the Old Right , an informal group of paleoconservatives in both major parties, staunchly opposed President Woodrow Wilson's call for conscription in World War I . Additionally, he opposed U.S. Supreme Court nominees Harlan F. Stone in 1925 and John J. Parker in 1930, the prior being successfully appointed to the court. During

1332-618: Was serving at the time of the United States' declaration of war against the German Empire , which precipitated the United States' entry into World War I . In recognition of his efforts on behalf of the U.S. Navy, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was named the USS ; Carl Vinson , an honor rarely given to a person while living . On March 15, 1980, at age 96, he attended the ship's launching. Vinson Massif , Antarctica's highest mountain,

1369-527: Was sworn in on November 3, 1914. Vinson served as a Representative from November 3, 1914, to January 3, 1965. He was repeatedly re-elected by Democratic voters for this seat. Vinson's first term in congress was characterized by his support for segregation sponsoring bills to establish separate street cars and apartments for Blacks in the District of Columbia , banning interracial marriage in the District, and repealing

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