Albert Read graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Class of 1907. Following the successful NC Trans-Atlantic Flights in 1919 that earned him the Distinguished Service Medal, he predicted: “It soon will be possible to drive an airplane around the world at a height of 60,000 feet and 1,000 miles per hour.” The next day, The New York Times ran an editorial in reaction, stating: “It is one thing to be a qualified aviator, and quite another to be a qualified prophet. Nothing now known supports the Lieutenant Commander’s forecast. An airplane at the height of 60,000 feet would be whirling its propellers in a vacuum, and no aviator could live long in the freezing cold of interstellar space.” Albert Read retired as a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral.
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Cemetery:
Awards Received
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Legion of Merit
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Navy Distinguished Service Medal
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Legion of Merit
Service:
United States NavyRank:
Rear AdmiralAction Date:
January 1944 – September 1945
Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 345 (December 1945)(Citation Needed) – SYNOPSIS: Rear Admiral Albert Cushing Read, United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Commander, Fleet Air, Norfolk, Virginia, from January 1944 to September 1945.
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Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Service:
United States NavyRank:
Lieutenant CommanderAction Date:
May 8 – 27, 1919
Authority: Navy Book of Distinguished Service (Stringer)The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Lieutenant Commander Albert Cushing Read, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility in the development of U.S. Naval Aviation, and especially for his achievement in making the first trans-Atlantic flight in the NC-4, from 8 to 27 May 1919.