He was promoted to lieutenant on 2 June 1927 just before transferring to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, for post-graduate studies and in May 1928 attended the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. He was assigned as gunnery officer aboard the battleship USS Maryland in June 1929 until he was ordered to report to the U.S. Naval Academy as an instructor in 1932. From 1932 to 1934 he served as a gunnery instructor at the Naval Academy and continued his post graduate-work in law.
On 20 March 1941, Register received notification for change of duty for assignment to the battleship USS Arizona as communication officer. He reported for duty aboard Arizona in May 1941. He was killed in action when Arizona was sunk during the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. He was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously in accordance with General Order No. 186 on 21 January 1943. The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Register (DE-308) was named for Lieutenant Commander Register, but was renamed USS Creamer while under construction in 1943.
Register anchored off the Hagushi beaches at Okinawa on 19 May 1945. On 20 May 1945 she got underway for screening station Baker-13. At 19:25 hours a flight of ten JapaneseMistbishi A6M Zerofighters was sighted approaching from the west, directly out of the sun. Register increased her speed and made radical course changes. The Japanese formation split up, but four of the planes headed for Register. Two came in from starboard, one from ahead, one from astern. Register shot down two, one of the starboard attackers and the one closing in astern; the plane attacking from ahead, however, began a low, gliding run in an attempt to crash Register's bridge. Passing down Register's port side, the kamikaze suicide plane was deflected overboard by the kingpost, which buckled and crashed over No. 3 40-millimeter gun, wounding 12 of Register's crew, including her commanding officer, and causing considerable damage to her hull. The fourth plane though damaged, escaped.
Relieved the following morning, 21 May 1945, Register retired to Hagushi, thence proceeded via Saipan in the Mariana Islands to Leyte in the Philippine Islands, where repairs begun at Okinawa were completed. By 29 June 1945 she was ready for action again.
Assigned to escort duty, Register escorted 20 tank landing ships (LSTs) to Okinawa, then accompanied a nine-ship convoy to Ulithi Atoll before returning to Leyte on 16 July 1945. At the end of July 1945 she escorted two escort aircraft carriers to Ulithi Atoll and, while en route back to Leyte, joined in the search for survivors of the sinking of the heavy cruiserUSS Indianapolis (CA-35). On 3 August 1945 she picked up 12 of the heavy cruiser's crew. Transferring them to the hospital at Peleliu on 4 August 1945, she returned to the scene of the rescue, but found only life rafts and floater nets.
Postwar
At Leyte when hostilities ended on 15 August 1945, Register screened the battleships and cruisers of Task Group 95.7 to Okinawa from 20 August 1945 to 26 August 1945, then returned to the Philippines for the month of September 1945. In October 1945 she escorted transports carrying occupation troops to Japan, then served as harbor entrance patrol ship at Wakayama, Japan. Shifted to Nagoya toward the end of October 1945, she embarked United States Army and U.S. Navy personnel as passengers and headed east. Reaching Pearl Harbor on 15 November 1945, she continued on to the United States West Coast, thence steamed through the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to begin inactivation.
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