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Last Address LCDR Walter Owen Henry was born in, lived and died in his home state of Tennessee. He was buried in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at Evergreen Cemetery.
Date of Passing Apr 27, 1936
Location of Interment Evergreen Cemetery - Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Navy Cross, USS Fanning, WWI
HENRY, WALTER OWEN Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy
U.S.S. Fanning
Date of Action: November 17, 1917
Citation:
The Navy Cross is presented to Walter O. Henry, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Officer of the Deck on the U.S.S. Fanning in initiating prompt and efficient offensive action on the occasion of the engagement with, and the capture of the German submarine U-58 on November 17, 1917.
Other Comments:
World War I and the Action of 17 November 1917
Based on Queenstown, Ireland, Fanning and her sister destroyers patrolled the eastern Atlantic, escorting convoys and rescuing survivors of sunken merchantmen. At 1615 on 17 November 1917, Coxswain Daniel David Loomis sighted the periscope of U-58, and the Officer of the Deck Lieutenant Walter Owen Henry ordered the destroyer to attack. Fanning's first depth charge pattern scored, and as destroyer Nicholson joined the action, the submarine broke surface, her crew pouring out on deck, hands raised in surrender. The depth charge had hit near the submarines diving planes, forcing the submarine to surface, and also knocked out the main generator aboard Fanning. If U-58 had surfaced in battle ready mode, Fanning would have surely been lost. Fanning maneuvered to pick up the prisoners as the damaged submarine sank, the first of two U-boats to fall victim to US Navy destroyers in World War I. Coxswain Daniel David Loomis and Lieutenant Walter Owen Henry both received the Navy Cross for this action.
Fanning continued escort and patrol duty for the duration of the war. Though she made numerous submarine contacts, all of her attacks were inconclusive. On many occasions, she went to the aid of torpedoed ships, rescuing survivors and carrying them into port. On 8 October 1918, she picked up a total of 103 survivors, 25 from a merchantman and 78 from the Dupetit-Thouars.
Fanning passed in review before President Woodrow Wilson onboard the transport George Washington in Brest Harbor on 13 December, then remained at Brest until March of the following year. After a quick voyage to Plymouth, England, Fanning departed Brest for the States, by way of Lisbon, Portugal, and Ponta Delgada, Azores, in company with several other destroyers, and escorting a large group of submarine chasers. Fanning was placed out of commission at Philadelphia on 24 November 1919.
1915-1916, 116X, USS Bushnell (AG-32)
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David Bushnell was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, about 1742. A graduate of Yale University in 1775, he managed to explode gunpowder underwater, which is thought to have suggested to him the idea of a submarine mine or torpedo. In 1775, he completed a man-propelled wooden submarine boat, on the outside of which was attached a powder magazine with clock mechanism enclosed for igniting it. Bushnell's vessel was unsuccessful in her attempts to blow up British vessels in 1776-1777. Bushnell commanded the Corps of Engineers at West Point in 1783. He later became the head of a private school in Georgia; and then practiced medicine until his death in 1824 at Warrenton, Georgia.
The first USS Bushnell (AS-2), named for the Revolutionary War submarine pioneer, was christened by Miss Esculine Warwick Bushnell, great-grandniece of David Bushnell, and launched on 9 February 1915, by the Seattle Construction and Dry Dock Company at Seattle, Washington State. The submarine tender was commissioned on 24 November 1915 with Lieutenant D. F. Boyd in command.
When commissioned, the ship displaced 3,142 tons; was 350'6" in length overall; had a beam of 45'8"; drew 19'6" of water; could make 14 knots at speed; was manned by 151 officers and men; and was armed with four 5-inch guns and two 21-inch torpedo tubes.
USS Bushnell was assigned to the Submarine Flotilla of the United States Atlantic Fleet as the submarine tender for "L" Class submarines in January of 1916...and arrived on the east coast in February. Early in 1917, she escorted submarines to the Azores and in December accompanied Submarine Division Five to Ireland...arriving at Queenstown on 27 January 1918. USS Bushnell acted as tender for submarines operating off Queenstown until the end of World War I.
She later escorted captured German submarines to England, Canada, and the United States.
During September of 1920, she assisted in the salvage operations of submarine USS S-5 (SS-110)...which had gone down off the Delaware Capes. Fortunately, no lives were lost in that submarine sinking...but the submarine, itself, was not salvaged. Subsequently, USS Bushnell, until August of 1931, cruised with various submarine divisions along the Atlantic coast, in the Caribbean, along the west coast, and around the Hawaiian Islands. USS Bushnell arrived at San Diego, California, on 3 September 1931 (the day Robert Loys Sminkey was born), and reported for duty with the Submarine Force, United States Pacific Fleet...with whom she operated until 1937. She towed frigate USS Constitution ... the oldest warship afloat in the United States Navy ... from San Diego to the Panama Canal Zone during March and April of 1934. In February of 1935, assisted in the search for the survivors of dirigible USS Macon ... which had crashed at sea off San Diego. USS Macon had been one of the Navy's largest rigid airships.
During December of 1937, USS Bushnell was transferred to duty with the Hydrographic Survey Service and carried out her operations along the coasts of Columbia, Venezuela, Trinidad, British Guiana, and Samoa until September of 1941. On 25 July 1940, her designation was changed to AG-32, and, on 23 August, she was renamed USS Sumner. "AG" was the designation for "Miscellaneous Auxiliary."
USS Sumner (AG-32) sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, on 20 October 1941; joined the Base Force of the U. S. Pacific Fleet at San Diego; then continued on to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii ... arriving at the Submarine Base, there, on 25 November 1941.
