Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt Jr. (November 29, 1920 – January 2, 2000) was a United States Navy officer and the youngest person to serve as Chief of Naval Operations.

As an admiral and later the 19th Chief of Naval Operations, Zumwalt played a major role in United States military history, especially during the Vietnam War.

A decorated war veteran, Zumwalt reformed United States Navy personnel policies in an effort to improve enlisted life and ease racial tensions.

Zumwalt had planned to become a doctor like his parents, but in 1939, he was accepted to the United States Naval Academy (USNA) at Annapolis, Maryland.

On this ship, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor device for "heroic service as Evaluator in the Combat Information Center ... in action against enemy Japanese battleships during the Battle for Leyte Gulf, October 25, 1944".

In January 1948, Zumwalt was assigned to the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit of the University of North Carolina, where he remained until June 1950.

The Tills was placed in full active commission at Charleston Naval Shipyard on November 21, 1950, and he continued to command her until March 1951, when he joined the battleship USS Wisconsin as navigator and served with the ship in operations in Korea.

Completing that tour of duty in July 1955, he assumed command of the destroyer USS Arnold J. Isbell, participating in two deployments with the United States Seventh Fleet.

During the period of his command, Dewey earned the Excellence Award in Engineering, Supply, Weapons, and was runner-up in the Battle Efficiency Competition.

Among the swift-boat commanders were his son Elmo Russell Zumwalt III and later future senator and secretary of state John Kerry.

Zumwalt assumed duties as Chief of Naval Operations and was promoted to full admiral on July 1, 1970, and quickly began a series of moves intended to reduce racism and sexism in the Navy.

These included orders authorizing beards (sideburns, mustaches, and longer groomed hair were also acceptable) and introducing beer-dispensing machines to barracks.

Zumwalt reshaped the Navy's effort to replace large numbers of aging World War II-era vessels, a plan called "High-Low".

Instituted over the resistance of Admiral Hyman Rickover and others, High-Low sought to balance the purchase of high-end, nuclear-powered vessels with low-end, cheaper ones—such as the Sea Control Ship—that could be bought in greater numbers.

Zumwalt was the last Chief of Naval Operations to live at Number One Observatory Circle before it became the official residence of the vice president.

[9] Many of these directives were efforts to reform outdated policies potentially contributing to difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified naval personnel during the period of United States withdrawal from the Vietnam War.

[11] In an article published in The New York Times in 1986, Elmo Zumwalt III said: I am a lawyer and I don't think I could prove in court, by the weight of the existing scientific evidence, that Agent Orange is the cause of all the medical problems – nervous disorders, cancer and skin problems – reported by Vietnam veterans, or of their children's severe birth defects.

[12] During his son's illness in the early 1980s, Admiral Zumwalt was very active in lobbying Congress to establish a national registry of bone marrow donors.