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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/Okinawa Gunto Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 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.