This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Shane Laemmel, MR3
to remember
McGillicuddy, Terry, CAPT.
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Contact Info
Home Town Aberdeen, WA
Last Address Arbuckle, Colusa County, California 95912
Date of Passing Dec 27, 2009
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
On December 7, 1941, the battleship USS Pennsylvania was in the Navy Yard drydock, with the destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes just ahead of her. According to the action reports, at about 7:57 explosions were heard on the end of Ford Island and with a second explosion, the realization came that an aerial attack was in progress. The battleships came under attack but the Pennsylvania was out of reach of the torpedo bombers.
General quarters was sounded and the crew proceeded to battle stations, some breaking locks off the ready ammunition boxes when necessary. Shortly after 8:00 she became one of the first ships to commence firing at the Japanese planes as her anti-aircraft guns were put into action.
Other Comments:
Terry's first duty was in PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38), where he was first J.O. in turret two and plotting room officer on 7 December 1941. The flagship of the Pacific Fleet received the SecNav Unit citation and he received a Naval Letter of Commendation.
He participated in bombardments of Attu, Kiska, Makin, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Saipan; the ship received the SecNav Unit Citation and he received a Navy Letter of Commendation. For extinguishing an ammunition fire in Turret I lower handling room/magazine (while in the Majuro Atoll), Terry was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.
Central Pacific Campaign (1941-43)/Battle of Midway
From Month/Year
June / 1942
To Month/Year
June / 1942
Description The Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy (USN), under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo on Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863.
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped that another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific.
The Japanese plan was to lure the United States' aircraft carriers into a trap. The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii itself.
The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions.Most significantly, American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, all part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—and a heavy cruiser were sunk at a cost of one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.