[citation needed] Due to his love of the ocean Hoover attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated in the Class of 1916.

[citation needed] After graduation Hoover was assigned to the battleship USS Wyoming (BB-32), which was undergoing dockyard work in New York, around March, 1916.

[7] After months of drilling, Wyoming escorted a convoy to Stavanger, Norway, patrolled the North Sea, and covered a minelaying operation.

Afterwards she joined the SS George Washington, which was carrying president Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference, along with nine other battleships and 28 destroyers off Brest, France.

Hoover was involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea where he was awarded a Navy Cross for moving his ships alongside the USS Lexington to rescue survivors.

His command became Task Group 17.4, including USS Gwin (DD-433) in addition to 17.5, a destroyer screen for Yorktown during the decisive Battle of Midway in early June.

By dawn, these survivors had been gathered together by the senior surviving officer, Captain Hoover, in the southeast end of Indispensable Strait.

In Captain Hoover's preliminary action report to Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander, South Pacific, Hoover stated that he was concerned that radio emissions might disclose the location of the ships, so he sent the report over to the USS O'Bannon and ordered her north of San Cristobal Island to transmit it by radio.

Captain Hoover then turned the five ships south of San Cristobal and, in a loose formation, headed for Espiritu Santo.

[17] In 1951 he returned to government service as a civilian official at the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Sandia Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

[18] Hoover died on January 10, 1980 at the Hattie Ida Chaffee Nursing Home in East Providence, Rhode Island at the age of 85.

[citation needed] Hoover served as a vestryman and warden of St. Michael's Episcopal Church where he donated a flag from Task Force 17 which is on display today.