Gene Roddenberry spent a lot of time in the South Pacific and earned medals for his successful bombing missions. After he came back is when he started working on the Star Trek Pilot.
I don't think this was just a coincindence: Captain, James T. Kirk and Captain James Cook, sound very much alike. And James Cook DID boldly go where no other man went:
Captain James Cook FRS RN (27 October 1728 (O.S.) – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.