If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Maunabo, Puerto Rico
Last Address Brevard County, FL
Date of Passing Sep 14, 1969
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
Rear Admiral Frederick Lois Riefkohl (February 27, 1889-September 1969), a native of Maunabo, Puerto Rico, was an officer in the United States Navy and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and to be awarded the Navy Cross. The Navy Cross is the second highest medal, after the Medal of Honor, that can be awarded by the U.S. Navy for heroism or distinguished service. He was a World War I Navy Cross recipient who served as Captain of the USS Vincennes during World War II.
Frederick Louis Riefkohl was born in Maunabo, Puerto Rico and his full name was Luis Federico Riefkohl Jaimison (when he changed it is unknown but was before entering the Naval Academy), on 27 February 1889, son of Luis Riefkohl y Sandoz and Julia Jamieson Riefkohl. He attended schools in Arroyo, Puerto Rico; Christainsted, St. Croix, Virgin Islands; and Concord, Massachusetts; and had a year at Phillips-Andover Academy before entering the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, on appointment from Puerto Rico, on 5 July 1907, the first Midshipman appointed from Puerto Rico. As a Midshipman he was a member of the Track Team and played Class football. He graduated on 2 June 1911, and as Passed Midshipman served at sea for a year , as required by law (changed in 1912), prior to becoming commissioned on 2 March 1912. Through subsequent promotions he attained the rank of Captain, to date from 4 June 1939. He was transferred to the Retired List of the Navy on 1 January 1947, and advanced to the rank of Rear Admiral on the basis of combat citations.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
Awarded for Actions During World War I
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Philadelphia
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Frederick Louis Riefkohl, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commander of the Armed Guard of the U.S.S. PHILADELPHIA, and in an engagement with an enemy submarine. On 2 August 1917, a periscope was sighted, and then a torpedo passed under the stern of the ship. A shot was fired, which struck close to the submarine, which then disappeared.
Pacific Air Offensive (1942-45)/Doolittle B-25 Attack on Tokyo
From Month/Year
April / 1942
To Month/Year
April / 1942
Description The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on 18 April 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu island during World War II, the first air raid to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and provided an important boost to U.S. morale while damaging Japanese morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Forces.
Sixteen U.S. Army Air Forces B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to bomb military targets in Japan, and to continue westward to land in China—landing a medium bomber on Hornet was impossible. Fifteen of the aircraft reached China, and the other one landed in the Soviet Union. All but three of the crew survived, but all the aircraft were lost. Eight crewmen were captured by the Japanese Army in China; three of these were executed. The B-25 that landed in the Soviet Union at Vladivostok was confiscated and its crew interned for more than a year. Fourteen crews, except for one crewman, returned either to the United States or to American forces.
After the raid, the Japanese Imperial Army conducted a massive sweep through the eastern coastal provinces of China, in an operation now known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, searching for the surviving American airmen and applying retribution on the Chinese who aided them, in an effort to prevent this part of China from being used again for an attack on Japan. An estimated 250,000 Chinese civilians were killed by the Japanese during this operation.
The raid caused negligible material damage to Japan, but it succeeded in its goal of raising American morale and casting doubt in Japan on the ability of its military leaders to defend their home islands. It also caused Japan to withdraw its powerful aircraft carrier force from the Indian Ocean to defend their Home Islands, and the raid contributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's decision to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific—an attack that turned into a decisive strategic defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the U.S. Navy in the Battle of Midway. Doolittle, who initially believed that loss of all his aircraft would lead to his being court-martialled, received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two steps to Brigadier General.
