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Contact Info
Home Town Cresco, IA
Last Address Vallejo, CA
Date of Passing Mar 26, 1955
Location of Interment Buried at Sea, Pacific Ocean
Wall/Plot Coordinates Ashes scattered from the Cruiser Bremerton.
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Admiral Lowry began his naval career with his appointment to the NavalAcademy, Annapolis, Maryland in 1907. He was graduated in June, 1911. He first served at MareIsland in 1919, when he assumed command of the receiving ship and training station, following Atlantic patrol duty in World War I. His work between the two world wars included assignment to Guam, the Naval College at Newport, Rhode Island, duty on the battleships California and New York, at the University of California as professor of Naval science and tactics, command of the U.S.S. Hale, training work and a Washington tour in the bureau of navigation.
In 1940 he took command of the heavy cruiser, "Minneapolis" at Pearl Harbor, and the ship was the entrance to the harbor standing by to escort a convoy to Manila when the Japanese attacked. During the first year of the war, the "Minneapolis" operated in the southwest Pacific, and rescued 850 of the crew of the Lexington, which was sunk in the battle of the Coral Sea. This action resulted in the Navy Cross award for Admiral Lowry.
He also participated in the battle of Midway, the first landing at Guadalcanal, and the battle of the Eastern Solomons, where the "Minneapolis" towed the torpedoed "Saratoga" from the danger area.
He served briefly on stateside duty in 1942 and was then named commander of the MoroceanSea frontier, with headquarters at Casablanca. He then took command of the landing craft and bases at Salerno, Italy, and in November, 1943, became commander of the eighth Amphibian force.
Under his command the combined United States and British naval forces planned and assaulted the beaches at Anzio in January, 1944. He then commanded the landing in Southern France in August, 1944, and returned to the United States to organize and amphibious group for the invasion of Japan. When the war ended, he was ordered to Germany to serve under General Patton. He was named area commander of MareIsland, October 30, 1947, succeeding Vice Admiral Mahlan D. Tisdale, the first to hold the area command position.
Admiral Lowry was awarded 21 medals, ranging from the highest Navy honor and Navy cross, to six decorations from foreign governments.
He retired from active duty as commander of the MareIsland in March, 1950.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
Awarded for Actions During WWII
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 311 (February 1943)
Action Date: May 7 & 8, 1942
Service: Navy
Rank: Captain
Company: Commanding Officer
Division: U.S.S. Minneapolis (CA-36)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Captain Frank Jacob Lowry, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Heavy Cruiser U.S.S. MINNEAPOLIS (CA-36), during operations in Coral Sea on 7 and 8 May 1942 . Under Captain Lowry's skillful direction, his ship during this action inflicted considerable damage on the enemy Japanese and rendered vital protection to the aircraft carrier to which it was assigned. Captain Lowry's inspiring leadership and the valiant devotion to duty of his command contributed in large measure to the outstanding success of these vital missions and reflect great credit upon the United States Naval Service.
Central Pacific Campaign (1941-43)/Battle of Midway
From Month/Year
June / 1942
To Month/Year
June / 1942
Description The Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy (USN), under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo on Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863.
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped that another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific.
The Japanese plan was to lure the United States' aircraft carriers into a trap. The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii itself.
The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions.Most significantly, American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, all part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—and a heavy cruiser were sunk at a cost of one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.
