William "Bull" Halsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of a naval officer. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1904 and was commissioned an ensign in 1906. Halsey sailed with Admiral George Dewey on the world-circling cruise of the Great White Fleet from August 1907 to February 1909. He subsequently attended torpedo school at Charleston, South Carolina, and was assigned duty aboard destroyers and torpedo boats before being given command of the destroyers Flusser in 1912 and Jervis in 1913. The latter vessel he commanded during the occupation of Veracruz (April-October 1914) and left it in 1915, when he was attached to the executive department at the Naval Academy. Halsey was promoted to lieutenant commander in August 1916, and, with American entry into World War I, was assigned command of two destroyers, the Duncan and Benham, performing convoy escort duty from a base in Queenstown, Ireland. After the armistice, Halsey commanded destroyers in the Atlantic as well as the Pacific through 1921, when he was transferred from sea duty to the Office of Naval Intelligence.

In 1922, Halsey was named naval attache in Berlin and, subsequently, became attache in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. He returned to sea duty in 1924 aboard destroyers in the Atlantic, then transferred to the battleship Wyoming as executive officer during 1926-27. Promoted to captain in February 1927, he was given command of the Reina Mercedes (IX-25), the post ship at Annapolis, which had been captured from the Spaniards in 1898. In 1930, Halsey assumed command of Destroyer Squadron 14, serving until 1932, when he enrolled in the Naval War College (graduated 1933) and the Army War College (graduated 1934).

Seeing the future of naval warfare in carrier-based aviation, Halsey, at the age of 52, completed flight training at Pensacola, Florida, in May 1935 and assumed command of the aircraft carrier Saratoga that July. Two years later, he returned to Pensacola as commander of the Pensacola Naval Air Station. After promotion to rear admiral in March 1938, he took command of Carrier Division 2, followed by command of Carrier Division 1 in 1939.

Halsey was promoted to vice admiral in June 1940 and was assigned to command Aircraft Battle Force as well as returning to command of Carrier Division 2. He was at sea with the carriers Enterprise and Yorktown during the Battle of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This fortuitously saved the carriers from destruction, and he used them in the months that followed to raid outlying Japanese islands in the Central Pacific (January-May 1942). He also worked with U.S. Army Air Corps colonel James H. Doolittle in carrying out the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, launching 16 B-25 bombers from the carrier Hornet. . .

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