On the day ESSA and the ESSA Corps were created, Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps Rear Admiral Henry Arnold Karo (1903–1986) simultaneously became an ESSA Corps officer and was promoted to vice admiral to serve as ESSA's first deputy administrator. At the time the highest-ranking officer in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps and ESSA Corps, Vice Admiral Karo served as Deputy Administrator of ESSA from 1965 to 1967. He was the only officer in the combined history of the Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps, ESSA Corps, and the ESSA Corps′ successor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps (NOAA Corps), to reach that rank until NOAA Corps Rear Admiral Michael S. Devany was promoted to vice admiral on 2 January 2014.