Carl Vinson

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Carl Vinson

40th Dean of the United States House of Representatives
In office November 1961 – January 1965
Preceded by	Sam Rayburn
Succeeded by	Emanuel Celler
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 10th & 6th district
In office November 3, 1914 – January 3, 1965
Preceded by	Thomas W. Hardwick (10th) W. Carlton Mobley (6th)
Succeeded by	Charles H. Brand (10th) John J. Flynt, Jr. (6th)
Personal details
Born	November 18, 1883 Baldwin County, Georgia
Died	June 1, 1981 (aged 97) Milledgeville, Georgia
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	Mercer University
Signature

Carl Vinson (November 18, 1883 – June 1, 1981) was a United States Representative from Georgia. He was a Democrat and the first person to serve for more than 50 years in the United States House of Representatives. He was known as "The Father of the Two-Ocean Navy".

Early years

Vinson was born in Baldwin County, Georgia, attended Georgia Military College, and graduated with a law degree from Mercer University in 1902. He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1908. After losing a third term following redistricting, he was appointed judge of the Baldwin County court, but following the sudden death of Senator Augustus Bacon, Representative Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia's 10th congressional district was nominated to fill Bacon's Senate seat and Vinson announced his candidacy for Hardwick's seat in Congress. Vinson won over three opponents. He was the youngest member of Congress (30 years old) when he was sworn in on November 3, 1914.

Service in Congress

Carl Vinson became a Representative at age 30. He served until age 81.

Vinson served as a Representative from November 3, 1914, to January 3, 1965. 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 the mid-1920s. In 1931, Vinson became chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee. In 1934, he helped push the Vinson-Trammell Act, along with 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, 1922 and London Naval Treaty, 1930. Initial funding for 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, which would repudiate the Treaties in late 1934. He later was primarily responsible for additional naval expansion legislation, the Naval Act of 1938 ("Second Vinson Act") and the Third Vinson Act of 1940, 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.

Portrait of Vinson, 1943.

Following World War II, the House Naval Affairs Committee was merged with the Military Affairs Committee to become the House Armed Services Committee (this consolidation mirrored the creation of the Department of Defense when the old Departments of War and of the Navy were consolidated). With Republicans winning 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. He held this position, with the exception of another two-year Republican interregnum in the early 1950s, until his retirement in 1965. In this role, Vinson adopted a committee rule that came to be known as the "Vinson rule". Accordingly, each year junior members of the committee could ask only one question per year of service on the committee. At the end of the war, Congress had authorized four Naval four-star officers to be promoted to Fleet Admiral. A staunch partisan of Admiral William Halsey, Jr., Vinson blocked the nomination of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, thought to be more deserving by the majority, multiple times to ensure that Halsey got the fourth billet. Congress eventually responded by passing an unprecedented act which specified that Spruance would remain on a full admiral's pay once retired until death.^[1]^[2] 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, in 1956, Vinson signed "The Southern Manifesto".

Vinson did not seek re-election in 1964 and retired from Congress in January 1965. He returned to Baldwin County, Georgia, where he lived in retirement until his death. He is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Personal

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, 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 L. Whitten of Mississippi.

For his commitment, Vinson was awarded the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award by the United States Military Academy. In 1964, President Lyndon 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, is named for Vinson.

Vinson did not have children, but his grandnephew, Sam Nunn, served as a Senator from Georgia for more than 24 years. Nunn followed in his granduncle's footsteps, serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee for nearly his entire tenure in the Senate.

External links

References

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Thomas W. Hardwick	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 10th congressional district November 3, 1914 – March 4, 1933	Succeeded by Charles H. Brand
Preceded by W. Carlton Mobley	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 6th congressional district March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1965	Succeeded by John J. Flynt, Jr.
Honorary titles
Preceded by Sam Rayburn	Dean of the House 1961–1965	Succeeded by Emanuel Celler
Awards
Preceded by James B. Conant	Sylvanus Thayer Award recipient 1966	Succeeded by Francis Spellman

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 50308286 LCCN: n81063176 GND: 129466352

Persondata
Name	Vinson, Carl
Alternative names
Short description	Democratic United States Congressman
Date of birth	November 18, 1883
Place of birth	Baldwin County, Georgia
Date of death	June 1, 1981
Place of death	Milledgeville, Georgia

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