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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
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1945
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
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.
