Morton T. Seligman

A two-time recipient of the Navy Cross, Seligman was involved in a security breach in 1942 which brought to an end his promising naval career and forced his retirement in 1944.

Morton Tinslar Seligman was born on July 1, 1895, in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a family of New Mexico pioneers.

[1] In 1940 Seligman was a technical advisor in a major Hollywood movie production, Flight Command.

[3][4] At the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who viewed the Tribune and its publisher as an enemy, and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Attorney General Francis Biddle was pressed to prosecute Johnston and others at the Tribune for harm to national security under the Espionage Act.

Investigators established that officers on board the Barnett were careless in their handling of sensitive material, and that Johnston was able to see some of it.

Instead, Seligman was assigned to shore duty, an unusual situation for a high-ranking decorated officer who up to that time had been on track to flag rank.

Seligman died at age 71 at the Naval Hospital Balboa in San Diego on July 9, 1967.