[2][3] As a junior officer, Felt served five years aboard the battleship Mississippi and the destroyer Farenholt before applying for flight training out of sheer boredom.

While training at Naval Air Station Pensacola from 1928 to 1929, Felt met Kathryn Cowley, whom he married on August 3, 1929, after warning her that the Navy would always come first.

[2] During the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on August 24, 1942, Felt led Air Group 3 (AG-3) from the Saratoga in an attack that sank the Japanese light carrier Ryūjō.

Diving with his second wave of bombers through enemy flak and fighters, Felt personally scored the first of his group's several 1,000-pound bomb hits on the carrier.

He later commanded the escort carrier Chenango from February 1945 to January 1946, which included heavy participation in the Battle of Okinawa from March through June.

In March 1951, Felt was assigned to command the Middle East Force in the Persian Gulf, becoming the first flag officer to serve in that position.

[8] After returning to the Navy Department in October, Felt worked for Rear Admiral Arleigh Burke as the assistant director of the Strategic Plans Division.

As vice chief of naval operations, Felt enjoyed "a reputation for eating admirals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When a four-star command opened up in the Pacific, Burke appointed Felt, claiming virtuously, "I couldn't hold him back just selfishly to keep him in the vice chief's job.

"[10] In 1958, Felt was offered the command of all U.S. forces in the Pacific and Far East, and he jumped at the opportunity to avoid spending the rest of his career behind a desk.

Resp'y, F."[2] Although his job title was officially abbreviated as "CINCPAC," he was informally nicknamed "CINCFELT" within the command due to his larger-than-life personality.

In a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, Felt declared, "We have the Seventh Fleet and we have the planes to wipe Tchepone off the face of the earth.

In internal administration debates, he warned that the proposed American intervention lacked a sound strategic concept and "would commit the U.S. to another Korea-type support and assistance situation" from which "we can't pull out at will without damaging repercussions."

In early 1962, Felt presciently predicted that Viet Cong forces would seek "a prolonged form of attritional warfare" that could not "be defeated by purely military means."

As Harkins' superior in the chain of command, Felt was criticized for exercising excessive control over MACV field operations.

[1] He had one son, Donald Linn Felt, a naval aviator and jet pilot who commanded the carrier USS Midway (CV-41) before retiring at the rank of rear admiral.

[13] Cape Felt, in Antarctica, is named after him, as he served as vice chief of naval operations during the International Geophysical Year.