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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.
Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)/Battle of Philippine Sea
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
Description The Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 19–20, 1944) was a major naval battle of World War II that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War. The battle was the last of five major "carrier-versus-carrier" engagements between American and Japanese naval forces, and pitted elements of the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet against ships and aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Mobile Fleet and nearby island garrisons.
The aerial part of the battle was nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by American aviators for the severely disproportional loss ratio inflicted upon Japanese aircraft by American pilots and anti-aircraft gunners. During a debriefing after the first two air battles a pilot from USS Lexington remarked "Why, hell, it was just like an old-time turkey shoot down home!" The outcome is generally attributed to American improvements in pilot and crew training and tactics, technology (including the top-secret anti-aircraft proximity fuze), and ship and aircraft design. Although at the time the battle appeared to be a missed opportunity to destroy the Japanese fleet, the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost the bulk of its carrier air strength and would never recover. During the course of the battle, American submarines torpedoed and sank two of the largest Japanese fleet carriers taking part in the battle.
This was the largest carrier-to-carrier battle in history.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
June / 1944
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.
