Legion of Honour (France) (1919) Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold (Belgium) Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy Other honors; Theodore Roosevelt Association Distinguished Service Medal (1926) American Legion Distinguished Service Medal (1930) Pulitzer Prize for History (1921) Dates of rank Cadet Midshipman, United States Naval Academy - 24 June 1876 Midshipman - 22 June 1880 Ensign (junior grade) - 3 March 1883 Ensign - 26 June 1884 Lieutenant (junior grade) - 9 May 1893 Lieutenant - 1 January 1897 Lieutenant Commander - 21 November 1902 Commander - 1 July 1907 Captain - 4 March 1911 Rear Admiral - Selected on 29 August 1916, but remained number 31 of 30 flag officers remaining in the rank of captain while awaiting billet until 23 March 1917. Vice Admiral (temporary) - 25 May 1917 Admiral (temporary) - 4 December 1918 Rear Admiral - Upon returning to the Presidency of the Naval War College on 11 April 1919 Rear Admiral, Retired List - 15 October 1922 Admiral, Retired List - June 21, 1930 See also List of people on the cover of Time magazine: 1920s Notes References Allard, Dean C., "Admiral William S. Sims and United States Naval Policy in World War I" in American Neptune 35 (April 1975): 97–110. Coletta, Paolo E. "Naval Lessons of the Great War: The William Sims-Josephus Daniels Controversy," American Neptune, Sept 1991, Vol. 51 Issue 4, pp 241–251 Hagan, Kenneth J., "The Critic Within" in Naval History (December 1998): 20-25 Hagan, Kenneth J., "William S. Sims: Naval Insurgent and Coalition Warrior" in The Human Tradition in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Ballard C. Campbell, ed. (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000), 187-203 Hagan, Kenneth J., and Michael T. McMaster, "His Remarks Reverberated from Berlin to Washington," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (December 2010): 66–71. Little, Branden, and Kenneth J. Hagan, "Radical, But Right: William Sowden Sims (1858-1936)" in Nineteen Gun Salute: Case Studies of Operational, Strategic, and Diplomatic Naval Leadership during the 20th and early 21st Centuries, eds. John B. Hattendorf and Bruce Elleman (Newport, RI and Washington, D.C.: Naval War College Press & Government Printing Office, 2010), 1-10. Morison, Elting E., Admiral Sims and the Modern American Navy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1942), the standard scholarly biography, by the husband of his daughter Anne Hitchcock Sims Simpson, Michael, "William S. Sims, U.S. Navy, and Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, Royal Navy: An Unlikely Friendship,