This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Michael Frederick, DK2
to remember
Baer, Donald G, RADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Uniontown, PA
Last Address Alexandria, VA
Date of Passing Nov 28, 2008
Military Service Number 78 684
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Donald G. Baer, 93, a retired Navy rear admiral who had been a highly decorated submarine commander during World War II and commanded Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines in the mid-1960s, died Nov. 28 at Goodwin House retirement home in Alexandria. He had congestive heart failure.
Donald G. Baer, whose middle initial stood for nothing, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He received a master's degree in the technology of management from AmericanUniversity.
After his military retirement, Adm. Baer settled in the Washington area and spent several years as general manager of a division of Meloy Laboratories that designed and manufactured air-pollution monitoring systems.
He was a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in ArlingtonCounty and moved to Goodwin House from McLean in 1999.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Lapon (SS-260)
General Orders: Commander 7th Fleet: Serial 0586 (February 8, 1945)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander Donald "G" Baer (NSN: 0-78684), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. LAPON (SS-260), on the SIXTH War Patrol of that submarine during the period 4 September 1944 to 31 October 1944, in enemy Japanese-controlled waters in the South China Sea Area. Skillfully maneuvering his ship, Commander Baer conducted a series of three attacks upon heavily escorted enemy shipping convoys, which resulted in the sinking of four hostile vessels. Although his submarine was subjected to severe depth charge attacks, often close to shore, he succeeded in bringing the LAPON safe to port. By his courage, professional skill and devotion to duty, Commander Baer upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
