Settle graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1918, second in his class,[REF] and began his naval career as an ensign[REF] on the destroyers , and .
Settle married Fay Brackett, an employee of Cruft Laboratory, in June 1924,[REF] and in July assumed his next Navy assignment, that of communications officer on , a rigid, 207-meter airship based at Lakehurst Naval Air Station [REF].