Allen B. Reed

Captain Allen Bevins Reed (April 3, 1884 – February 28, 1965) was a U.S. Naval officer whose career began aboard vessels in the Asiatic and Pacific Fleets. Early in his career he was Captain Takeshita Isamu's escort during a ceremonial visit to the mayor of San Francisco, and he was a member of a Naval Board of Inquiry. Reed assumed the command of a landing force of 120 men in Nicaragua in 1912, to protect a railway line following a coup d'état attempt by General Luis Mena.

Over his career, Reed commanded eight ships, and after he was made captain, he was commander of Division 80 of Destroyer Squadron 11, Division 30 of Battle Fleet from the flagship , and Division 45 of the Battle Fleet from . Reed received the Navy Cross for his command of the during dangerous transatlantic voyages of World War I. Reed was the plank owner commanding officer of the newly commissioned heavy cruiser , and in the summer of 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a cruise on the ship through the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean.

In the latter years of his naval career, Reed was attached to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations where his assignments included Director of Fleet Maintenance Division. He was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Army and Navy Munitions Board and served on the Joint Economy Board between the Army and Navy.

He retired in 1939, but remain on active duty at the beginning of World War II. He was head of the United States Maritime Commission and was the navy liaison to the Office of Production Management, which later became the War Production Board. Provided by Wikipedia