Yes, that should have been U. S. Navy. how could I make such a mistake?
Adams doesn't even mention Steichen in his autobiography. However, Mary Street Alinder, in her Ansel Adams: A Biography, has much to say, and with much authority. She had helped Adams write the autobiography. In 1940 Adams was involved in the establishment of a department of photography in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. When WWII broke out, Steichen offered Adams the job of building and directing the darkroom and lab that Steichen, as the director of a unit to document Naval aviation. was organizing. That arrangement fell through. Then the director of MoMA invited Steichen to direct the huge exhibit Road to Victory. To Ansel's disgust, the photographs were selected more for their propaganda value than photographic qualities. After the war, Steichen was appointed as director of MOMA's Department of Photography over Ansel's friend, Beaumont Newhall, who eventually resigned. Adams loaned a copy negative of Mount Williamson from Manzanar to Steichen to be printed and used in the massive The Family of Man exhibit. Steichen took unforgivable liberties in presenting the image. That must have been the last straw.