This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Shane Laemmel, MR3
to remember
Bassett, Leonard Flournoy, CAPT.
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 Pine Bluff, AR
Last Address Coronado, CA
Date of Passing Feb 06, 2006
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Capt. Bassett passed away Feb. 8 after a long illness, only a few weeks after his 89th birthday.
Leonard Bassett was born in Pine Bluff, Ark. He attended Arkansas State College before receiving a presidential appointment to the United StatesNavalAcademy in Annapolis, Md., where he graduated in 1940. In 1943, he married Catherine Garthwaite of Oakland, a marriage that lasted 62 years.
In his 30-year naval career, Capt. Bassett served on a number of ships in the Pacific Fleet. He saw action during World War II aboard the USS Concord and the USS St. Louis, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for his service as an assistant gunnery officer. He eventually served on the staff of legendary Admiral Arleigh "Knots” Burke. During the Korean conflict, Capt. Bassett served as a gunnery officer aboard the USS Rochester and the USS Iowa, for which he was awarded two additional Bronze Stars, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Korean Service Medal with three combat stars.
Following World War II, Capt. Bassett attended both the NavalPostgraduateSchool and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned an master's of science degree in electrical engineering in 1949.
During the 1950s Capt. Bassett developed a reputation as one of the Navy's top weapons experts. He served with the Navy's Bureau of Weapons and Inspector of Ordnance service, assisting in the development of guidance technology for the TALOS missile system. He attained the rank of captain in 1959, and served as commanding officer of both the USS Rowan and USS Union. In 1965, Capt. Bassett was appointed commander of the Naval Ammunition Depot at Oahu, Hawaii. His last tour of duty was assistant chief of staff for administration COM 11.
After his retirement from the Navy in 1970, Capt. Bassett worked for the United Way, where he headed up the Combined Federal Campaign. He left that job in 1977, and devoted his time to playing golf, building a computer, and spending time with his wife, Cathie in Coronado, their home for 45 years. He was a member of the Coronado Men's Golf Club for more than 35 years, and served on its board of governors in 1971. He played to a 12 handicap, and scored two holes-in-one at the Coronado Golf Course, in 1972 and 1974.
Throughout his life, Capt. Bassett was known and loved for his wonderful and mischievous sense of humor. While serving as commander of the Ammunitions Depot in Hawaii, he once, according to legend, showed up dressed as a ballerina, complete with leotard and tutu, at a base Halloween party. At sea, at home, or on the golf course, Capt. Bassett was always making the people around him laugh. The men who served under his command remembered his sense of humor, and also knew him as an inspirational by-the-book leader with an unshakable sense of fair play.
Capt. Bassett was preceded in death by his wife, Cathie, and by his brother, Dr. John W. Bassett of Portland, Ore. He is survived by his two daughters and sons-in-law, Ann and Bob Hite of Basalt, Colo.; and Cee Cee and Emile Barrios of San Diego.
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.
