Henry "Hank" Croskey Mustin (August 31, 1933 – April 11, 2016) was a vice admiral in the United States Navy and among the namesakes of USS Mustin (DDG-89). He distinguished himself during both the Vietnam and Cold Wars. As a flag officer he commanded Cruiser Destroyer Group 2, US Second Fleet, NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, and Joint Task Force 120, where he was responsible for 225 ships and 2,100 aircraft spanning over 45 million square miles from the Arctic Circle to the Equator. Vice Admiral Mustin directed US Navy arms control planning, including the START negotiations with the Soviet Union. He led high-level US interagency delegations to Moscow, London, Paris, Lisbon, Oslo and Seoul. As Commander, NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, he instituted major strategic changes to the defense of NATO that shaped the nation's maritime strategy. He also served as the senior US military representative to the United Nations. He retired from the navy on January 1, 1989, after nearly 34 years of active duty service.
Early life and education
A Navy junior, Mustin was born in Bremerton, Washington, on 31 August 1933, as the sixth generation of distinguished naval officers and great-nephew of George Barnett, the 12th Commandant of the Marine Corps. He was the son of Vice Admiral Lloyd Montague Mustin and Emily Proctor Mustin, and namesake of his late grandfather Captain Henry C. Mustin a pioneering naval aviator. Of her eldest son, Henry Croskey Mustin, Emily would often say that he "was born with his feet planted firmly on the ground." In the late 1940s, while attending St. Stephen's School in Alexandria, VA, he acquired the nickname Hank, as if to reinforce a rootedness, despite his many moves as a Navy junior.
Mustin remained at St. Stephen's through his sophomore year of high school. As a tenth grader, he was captain of the football and baseball teams. The high scorer on the basketball team and the player with the highest batting average on the baseball team, he won both the teams' cups as outstanding player, as well as the cup for the school's outstanding athlete. In the late summer of 1948, Mustin moved to Coronado, CA when his father received orders to command his first ship. Mustin's grandmother, Corinne, and her second husband, Admiral George D. Murray, would frequently visit North Island to visit the Mustins and their friends. They would often throw grand cocktail parties at the air station's flag cabin, and Mustin would often find himself in the presence of such Navy notables as Halsey and Nimitz. He recalled that "the events of the war were fresh in these guys' minds. They would be talking over what now are the famous battles of World War II, and they'd be saying 'Well, so-and-so was nervous and abandoned his ship too early.' They talked the way we do about guys that are the giants of history. All that stuff had a great influence on me." As a youngster Mustin admired and respected his father and his friends. There was never any doubt in his mind that he wanted to join the navy and be like them.
Mustin's determination to attend the U.S. Naval Academy was unshakeable. He graduated from Coronado High School, Coronado, California, in 1950, but not yet seventeen, he was too young for admission to the Naval Academy. At the time, neither his father nor his mother wanted him to do a year at a West Coast university fearing the effect on his resolve, so the decision was made for him to enter the University of Virginia prior to competing for a slot at the Naval Academy. Upon completion of his first year at UVA, Mustin was selected for a SECNAV appointment to the Naval Academy joining the class of 1955. During Christmas leave in 1953, his Third Class year, Mustin met Lucy Holcomb. During the Holiday, Lucy's brother Russ got four tickets to a Harlem Globetrotters game and proposed that they take each other's sisters. After going to that game, Mustin never dated anyone else. In 1954, during his Second Class year, he proposed at the Ring Dance and they became engaged. They were married later the next year.
At the time, the glamorous officers of the line were destroyer sailors and that's what Mustin wanted to be as well. On service selection night, he drew a number high enough to let him pick USS Duncan (DD-874), a San Diego-based Gearing-class destroyer.
Early career
USS Duncan (DD-874) In those days, each destroyer division had four destroyers: one long-hull radar picket destroyer, a straight stick, long-hull destroyer, and two Fletcher-class 445s. Two divisions made a squadron. Pacific destroyers primarily were serving as escorts, screening the carrier battle groups in the strike force, Task Force 77.