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Contact Info
Home Town Malden, Dunklin County, Missouri
Last Address Admiral Montgomery died in Arlington Virginia and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.
Date of Passing Apr 12, 2011
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Admiral Montgomery, a native of Malden, Missouri, graduated from the US Naval Academy with the Class of 1945, in June 1944, due to World War II. He served in the cruiser USS New Orleans in the Western Pacific area throughout the remainder of wartime hostilities, facing enemy forces in the Philippine, Ryukyu, and Japanese islands.
Subsequent service included various operational and command assignments, at sea and ashore, in both the Atlantic and Pacific areas. He did post graduate work at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he obtained a Master of Science Degree in Management and Industrial Engineering. He commanded the destroyer escorts USS McCoy Reynolds (DE 440) . the USS McGinty (DE 365), the USS DeHaven (DD727), and , the USS Galveston (CLG 3), the world's first long range guided missile (TALOS) ship. Other significant assignments included Head of Amphibious Warfare Systems in the Office of the Director of Warfare Analysis, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; Executive Assistant and Senior Aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management); Chief of Staff US Seventh Fleet; a Deputy Chief in Naval Material Command Headquarters; and in the Naval Sea Systems Command as Deputy Commander for Surface Ships.
Following graduation from the National War College in 1967, Admiral Montgomery was instrumental in planning, and developing the Navy's ability to provide career enhancing training ashore for the artificer ratings while simultaneously providing maintenance assistance to the fleet. Reporting directly to the Chief of the Bureau of Naval Personnel and to the Under Secretary of the Navy, he brought such a concept to fruition as the first commanding officer of the Naval Development and Training Center (DATC), on the site of the then dormant San Diego Naval Repair Facility. The success and benefits of this effort resulted in broad establishment of the DATC concept, at activities later to be known as Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activities (SIMAs).
Admiral Montgomery fondly recalls his days in DeHaven as being very special to him, a veritable destroyerman's dream, and certainly one of the highlights of his career. Homeported in Yokosuka, the DeHaven was continuously active as a permanent member of the wide ranging Seventh Fleet at a time of much international focus on the Western Pacific area. A time, too, when the Seventh Fleet's initial exploratory destroyer coastal incursion returned a US Navy warship to the Yellow Sea area after an absence of some fifteen years. This earned DeHaven an historical linkage to those future DESOTO patrols — DeHaven Special Operations off TsingtaO.
Admiral Montgomery was awarded numerous medals, awards, and decorations, including three Legions of Merit, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation, the National Order of Vietnam, Fourth Class. He was also awarded the Navy Gallantry Cross with Palm by the Republic of Vietnam.
Following his retirement in 1978, Admiral Montgomery continues in the private sector his interest and activities in maritime, defense, and general national security matters. He remains an active lifetime member of the Surface Navy Association.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Luzon Campaign (1944-45)
From Month/Year
December / 1944
To Month/Year
April / 1945
Description On December 15, 1944, landings against minimal resistance were made on the southern beaches of the island of Mindoro, a key location in the planned Lingayen Gulf operations, in support of major landings scheduled on Luzon. On January 9, 1945, on the south shore of Lingayen Gulf on the western coast of Luzon, General Krueger's Sixth Army landed his first units. Almost 175,000 men followed across the twenty-mile (32 km) beachhead within a few days. With heavy air support, Army units pushed inland, taking Clark Field, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manila, in the last week of January.
Two more major landings followed, one to cut off the Bataan Peninsula, and another, that included a parachute drop, south of Manila. Pincers closed on the city and, on February 3, 1945, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and the 8th Cavalry Regiment (organized as infantry) passed through the northern suburbs and into the city itself.
As the advance on Manila continued from the north and the south, the Bataan Peninsula was rapidly secured. On February 16, paratroopers and amphibious units simultaneously assaulted the islet of Corregidor. It was necessary to take this stronghold because troops there can block the entrance of Manila Bay. The Americans needed to establish a major harbor base at Manila Bay to support the expected invasion of Japan, planned to begin on November 1, 1945. Resistance on Corregidor ended on February 27, and then all resistance by the Japanese Empire ceased on August 15, 1945, obviating the need for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
Despite initial optimism, fighting in Manila was harsh. It took until March 3 to clear the city of all Japanese troops, and the Japanese Marines, who fought on stubbornly and refused to either surrender or to evacuate as the Japanese Army had done. Fort Drum, a fortified island in Manila Bay near Corregidor, held out until 13 April, when a team of Army troops went ashore and pumped 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the fort, then set off incendiary charges. No Japanese soldiers in Fort Drum survived the blast and fire.
In all, ten U.S. divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest American campaign of the Pacific war, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
December / 1944
To Month/Year
April / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Admiral Montgomery, a native of Malden, Missouri, graduated from the US Naval Academy with the Class of 1945, in June 1944, due to World War II. He served in the cruiser USS New Orleans in the Western Pacific area throughout the remainder of wartime hostilities, facing enemy forces in the Philippine, Ryukyu, and Japanese islands.
