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Nimitz LbNA #40334

Owner:Boots Tex
Plant date:May 24, 2008
Location:
City:Fredericksburg
County:Gillespie
State:Texas
Boxes:1
Found by: Stepping By Faith
Last found:Apr 23, 2023
Status:FFFFFFFFaFFFFFFFFFFF
Last edited:Dec 20, 2015
Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz led the Allied naval forces to victory in the Pacific in World War II. He was born February 24, 1885, in Fredericksburg, Texas. His grandfather, Charles H. Nimitz was a German immigrant, former seaman, and owner of the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg. He was a big influence in the life of Chester.To get a college education he decided to get an appointment to the United States Military Academy. No appointment was available, however. He then applied for the United States Naval Academy. He graduated January 30, 1905, seventh in his class of 114 at Annapolis.With the coming of the First World War, he was given the rank of commander, and served as chief of staff to Admiral Samuel S. Robison, commander of the Atlantic Submarine Force. Soon thereafter, Nimitz was executive officer of the battleship South Carolina. He was then sent to Pearl Harbor where he built the submarine base and commanded the Submarine Division. In 1939 he returned to Washington as chief of the Bureau of Navigation. It was during his service there that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. In need of a scapegoat for the disaster, the Navy relieved Admiral Husband E. Kimmel as commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet. Nimitz became his replacement at Pearl Harbor on December 25, 1941. Avoiding the political finger pointing over the Pearl Harbor disaster, Fleet Admiral Nimitz concentrated on positives such as the fact that the Pearl Harbor submarine base was spared, and the aircraft carriers survived the attack by going to sea. It was with such unwarranted optimism that Nimitz directed the early morale-boosting victories of James Doolittle's carrier-based raid on Japan, and the battles in the Coral Sea and at Midway Island. As the war unfolded, Nimitz became commander-in-chief of Pacific Ocean Areas, while keeping his Pacific Fleet command. That promotion gave him command of the whole Pacific theater except for General Douglas MacArthur's section of the Southwest Pacific and the inactive southeast. After their unconditional surrender, Nimitz signed the peace treaty with Japan aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. He was awarded the army and navy Distinguished Service medals and many foreign decorations. On December 15, 1945, Nimitz was named commander-in-chief of the United States Fleet, a position he held for the next two years. In somewhat of an unofficial retirement, he was assigned unspecified duty by the Secretary of the Navy. He was a roving ambassador for the United Nations and a regent of the University of California. President Truman appointed him chairman of the Presidential Commission on Internal Security and Individual Rights. The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Naval Museum opened in 1964 at the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg. It is now the Admiral Nimitz State Historical Park, and contains many displays devoted to the Second World War.

Directions:
The Fredericksburg Visitor's Information Center is located at the corner of E. Austin St. and N. Lincoln St. in Fredericksburg, Texas. There is plenty of public parking in the rear of the building. Go in and see what Fredericksburg is all about, soak up a little local history and cool off. When you are ready to find the box, go back to the parking lot.

To the box:
In the far northeast of the parking lot, find the vine-covered wire fence that defines the east side of the parking lot and follow it the its north end. Face south and find a concrete block a few feet away at the bottom of the fence. The box is between the block and the fence. Please replace in that spot to make sure it can't be seen from the parking lot.