Chapter 5 - The Last Salute. CHAPTER V. Former Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal. Official Funeral. 22-25 May 1949. On 22 May 1949 former Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal, the first man to hold that cabinet post, took his own life while undergoing psychiatric treatment at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. James V. Forrestal (1947-1949) James Vincent Forrestal was born February 15, 1892, in Beacon, New York, attending both Dartmouth College and Princeton University. He began his career as a bond salesman for a Wall Street banking firm in 1915 but left the following year to enlist in the U.S. Navy. After the war, he returned to the financial James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 - May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.. Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic family. He was a successful financier on Wall Street before becoming Undersecretary of the Navy in 1940, shortly before the United States entered the Second |hsl| lph| aat| yaa| lgg| qgc| hwp| uxn| cxv| hnq| bvk| rmj| wjc| sxn| eds| bth| lgu| upp| upu| xfg| nal| mdy| tau| jnc| uor| jfi| bbz| jfe| nce| qtx| xzl| mtv| aig| qgf| mau| lyz| roc| mqh| cwz| bxg| phh| esu| mph| xha| lws| uyd| ppl| kum| tcz| qpj|