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Rear Admiral Francis Joseph McKenna was born on 19 March 1898, graduated
from the Naval Academy in 1920 with the class of 1921A, and got his Navy Wings in 1926. At the end
of his assignment in the Aleutians in April 1943, he was promoted to Captain and ordered as the Prospective
Commanding Officer of the escort carrier USS Midway.
In 1944 Midway was renamed St. Lo, thereby freeing the name for one
of the "Large Carriers" then under construction. Just one year after her commissioning, on 25 October
1944, St. Lo was a member of "Taffy 3" at the Battle
of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history. The ship came through the surface engagement with
the Japanese battle fleet unscathed, but shortly afterwards was hit by a kamikaze and sank,
the first US ship to be sunk by a Japanese suicide attack. Captain McKenna, the last man to leave
his doomed ship, was awarded the Navy Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action.
Still as a Captain, Francis J. McKenna was the first commanding officer of the aircraft carrier
USS Kearsarge (CV-33), in 1946–47.
In addition to the Navy Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor), Admiral McKenna was awarded the
Bronze Star with Combat "V," and the Legion of Merit. Additionally, and of great pride to him, he
was authorized—with the rest of the crew of St. Lo and Composite Squadron (VC)
65—to wear the Presidential Unit Citation for the magnificent job performed by ship and men at
Leyte Gulf as a unit of "Taffy 3" (TU 77.4.3).
Photo courtesy of the United States Navy. |
Bill Gonyo |
