Paul J. Halloran papers, 1895-1972 (bulk 1918-1971)

Paul J. Halloran (d. 1971) was a prominent naval officer and civil engineer during the twentieth century. Born in Norwood, Massachusetts and educated at Dartmouth College, Halloran joined the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps as a lieutenant in 1921 and served a number of engineering assignments in the United States and abroad during the 1920s and 1930s, including stints at Charleston Naval Shipyard, South Carolina, Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Haiti, New York, Quantico, and American Samoa. During World War II, Halloran supervised the construction of naval facilities at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia (1939-1941) and Newport Naval Station, Rhode Island (1941-1943). From 1943 to 1945, he served in the Pacific Theater and commanded the U.S. Navy's Sixth Seabee Brigade, which built the airbases on Saipan and Tinian in the Mariana Islands. The Tinian airbase was used for numerous bombing raids on Japan, including the dropping of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, Halloran served as public works officer of the Fifth Naval District in Norfolk, Virginia, and then retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of rear admiral in 1948. From 1948 to 1958, he was vice president of Foley Brothers Construction in Pleasantville, New York, and passed away in 1971.