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Contact Info
Home Town Floresville
Date of Passing Jun 15, 1993
Location of Interment Texas State Cemetery - Austin, Texas
Wall/Plot Coordinates Plot: Republic Hill, Section 2, Row P, Number 9
On November 22, 1963, Connally was sitting in the jump seat of Kennedy's open-topped limo as the president visited Dallas. When shots were fired, Connally was hit by a bullet that passed through Kennedy. The governor was wounded on his back, chest, wrist and thigh, and drifted in and out of consciousness for days. He finally became alert as he watched television coverage of Kennedy's funeral.
For a time, Connally was convinced that Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had intended to kill him instead. The reason, he said, was that Oswald had once petitioned Connally, when he was Secretary of the Navy, to upgrade his discharge from the Marines. Connally had never responded to the request.
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
People You Remember USS Bennibgton 3 battle stars
Memories
On 15 December, Bennington got underway from New York and transited the Panama Canal on the 21st. The carrier arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 January 1945 and then proceeded to Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands, where she joined Task Group 58.1 on 8 February. Operating out of Ulithi, she took part in the strikes against the Japanese home islands (16 – 17 February and 25 February), Volcano Islands (18 February – 4 March), Okinawa (1 March), and the raids in support of the Okinawa campaign (18 March – 11 June). On 7 April, Bennington's planes participated in the attacks on the Japanese task force moving through the East China Sea toward Okinawa, which resulted in the sinking of the battleshipYamato, light cruiserYahagi, and four destroyers. On 5 June, the carrier was damaged by a typhoon off Okinawa and retired to Leyte for repairs, arriving on 12 June. Her repairs completed, Bennington left Leyte on 1 July, and from 10 July – 15 August took part in the aerial raids on the Japanese home islands.
She continued operations in the western Pacific, supporting the occupation of Japan until 21 October. On 2 September, her planes participated in the mass flight over Missouriand Tokyo during the surrender ceremonies. Bennington arrived at San Francisco on 7 November, and early in March 1946 transited the Panama Canalen route to Norfolk, Virginia. Following pre-inactivation overhaul, she went out of commission in reserve at Norfolk on 8 November 1946.
