US Navy Vice Admiral. A combat veteran of World War II, he rose in rank to become the Director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group and helped to lead the US Navy into the age of missiles and nuclear weapons. Born in San Jon, New Mexico he received an appointment to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1926 and graduated in 1930 and served on various aircraft carriers and destroyers as well as attending the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island before being assigned to the battleship USS Arizona in 1939. During the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 he was in his quarters on shore but soon arrived dockside to see the ship in flames and eventually sink. He then became the gunnery officer of the battleship USS Pennsylvania and was credited with reorganizing its antiaircraft defenses. In 1944 he returned to the US and was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance in Washington DC where he became head of engineering planning. In 1950, after commanding a destroyer division and serving as a gunnery training officer at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he was transferred to the ammunition branch at the Bureau of Ordnance. In 1953 he commanded a transport in the Korean War and then was assigned to the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1956 he was promoted to the rank of captain became commander of the USS Boston, the US Navy's first guided missile cruiser. The following year he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and assigned to the guided missile division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington DC. In 1958 he became director of the guided missile division and a member of the Navy Ballistic Missiles Committee, which played an important role in developing the Polaris missiles used on nuclear submarines. In 1961, after commanding a cruiser division in the Atlantic, he became the assistant chief of naval operations for development. The following year he was promoted to the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. In 1964 he was promoted to the rank of vice admiral and became commander of the 2nd Fleet based in Norfolk, Virginia and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Strike Fleet Atlantic and commanded US naval forces during the intervention in the Dominican Republic in that period. His last job was Director of the Naval Weapons System Command in Washington DC and he retired in this position in 1969 with 39 years of continuous military service. Among his military and foreign decorations and awards include the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (with gold star), the Legion of Merit, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (with "V" device), the Navy Unit Commendation Medal, the American Defense Service Medal (with "A" device), the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with four campaign stars), the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal (with star), The Korea Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, and the French National Order of Merit. After his military retirement, he served for four years as president of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. He died in Alexandria, Virginia from complications after surgery for a broken hip at the age of 89. He was the father of US Navy Rear Admiral Kleber S. Masterson, Jr.