Adm. James L. Holloway III, a combat veteran of three wars who served as the chief of naval operations in the 1970s and later headed an investigation that strongly criticized the military’s planning of the failed 1980 mission to free hostages held at the American Embassy in Iran, died on Tuesday in Alexandria, Va. He was 97 .

His death was announced by the Navy.

Admiral Holloway was the Navy’s senior uniformed officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1974 to 1978, serving under three presidents.

He was an early proponent of nuclear-propelled ships, having studied under Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the nuclear-powered Navy.

Admiral Holloway served aboard destroyers in the North Atlantic and Pacific in World War II and flew fighter jets in the Korean War. He commanded the United States’ first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Enterprise, in the Vietnam War. After a stint at the Pentagon working on the Navy’s nuclear development program, he returned to Vietnam in 1972 as commander of the Seventh Fleet’s bombing raids over North Vietnam.