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Michael Kohan (Mikey), ATCS
to remember
Leahy, William Daniel, FADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Hampton
Last Address Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland
Date of Passing Jul 20, 1959
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section 2, Lot 932, Grid R-31.5
William Daniel Leahy was an American naval officer and the first such officer ever to hold the rank of Fleet Admiral and the first ever to hold a five-star rank in the U.S. armed forces.
He was critical of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which in his eyes were "of no material assistance in our war against Japan". His feeling was that "in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."
Other Comments:
USS Leahy (DLG/CG-16) was the lead ship of a new class of destroyer in the United States Navy. Named for Fleet AdmiralWilliam D. Leahy, she was commissioned on 4 August 1962 as DLG-16, a guided missile frigate, and reclassified as CG-16, a guided missile cruiser, on 30 June 1975.
Leahy was born in Hampton, Iowa and educated at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, from which he graduated in 1897. Midshipman Leahy was assigned to USS Oregon when she made her famous dash around Cape Horn in the spring of 1898 to participate in the Battle of Santiago during the Spanish-American War.
During the First World War Leahy was captain of the dispatch boat used by future U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The two men became close friends for the rest of their lives.
After the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt decided he needed a senior military officer as personal adviser and point of contact with his three service chiefs. On July 6, 1942, Leahy was appointed Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Army and Navy, the President of the United States. Leahy was appointed the first US Fleet Admiral on December 15, 1944.
Indiana Class Battleship: Displacement 10,288 Tons, Dimensions, 351' 2" (oa) x 69' 3" x 27' 2" (Max), Armament 4 x 13"/35 8 x 8"/35, 4 x 6"/30, 4 x 18"tt, Armor, 18" Belt, 15" Turrets, 3" Decks, 10" Conning Tower. Machinery, 9,000 IHP; 2 vertical, inverted, triple expansion engines, 2 screws; Speed, 15 Knots, Crew 473.
Operational and Building Data: Laid down by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, Calif., on November 19 1891. Launched October 26 1893; Commissioned July 15 1896, Decommissioned April 27 1906, Recommissioned August 29 1911, Decommissioned June 12 1919, Recommissioned August 21 1919, Decommissioned October 4 1919; Stricken November 22 1920. Demilitarized and Loaned as Museum to the State of Oregon, January 4 1924; Stricken November 2 1942. Sold for scrap, December 7 1942. Reacquired by Navy and stripped to main deck, September 1943. Reclassified IX-22 and used as ammunition Barge.
Fate: Hulk sold for scrap, March 15 1956, and broken up in Kawasaki, Japan.