Gravely, first black U.S. admiral, dies at 82

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Retired Vice Adm. Samuel Lee Gravely Jr., the first black naval officer to become an admiral and to command a warship and a fleet, died Friday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, after a stroke. He was 82.

Gravely began his 38-year Navy career as a fireman apprentice in 1942 and in the 1960s made history by becoming acting commanding officer of the destroyer USS Theodore E. Chandler.

Subsequent assignments included command of a cruiser destroyer group, the 11th Naval District and the Third Fleet in the Pacific.

After leaving active duty in 1980 he became director of the Defense Communications Agency in Washington.