Read was born in Lyme, New Hampshire into a Boston Brahmin family. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, graduating in the Class of 1907. In 1915, he was designated Naval Aviator No. 24. As a Lt. Commander in May 1919, Read commanded a crew of five on the NC-4 Curtiss flying boat, the first aircraft ever to make a transatlantic flight, eight years before Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo, non-stop flight, and a couple of weeks before Alcock and Brown's non stop flight. Read's flight started from Rockaway Beach, Long Island, took 23 days before arriving in Plymouth, England. The six stops included layovers at Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, the Azores, and Lisbon, Portugal.