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Contact Info
Home Town Malden, Dunklin County, Missouri
Last Address Admiral Montgomery died in Arlington Virginia and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.
Date of Passing Apr 12, 2011
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Admiral Montgomery, a native of Malden, Missouri, graduated from the US Naval Academy with the Class of 1945, in June 1944, due to World War II. He served in the cruiser USS New Orleans in the Western Pacific area throughout the remainder of wartime hostilities, facing enemy forces in the Philippine, Ryukyu, and Japanese islands.
Subsequent service included various operational and command assignments, at sea and ashore, in both the Atlantic and Pacific areas. He did post graduate work at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he obtained a Master of Science Degree in Management and Industrial Engineering. He commanded the destroyer escorts USS McCoy Reynolds (DE 440) . the USS McGinty (DE 365), the USS DeHaven (DD727), and , the USS Galveston (CLG 3), the world's first long range guided missile (TALOS) ship. Other significant assignments included Head of Amphibious Warfare Systems in the Office of the Director of Warfare Analysis, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations; Executive Assistant and Senior Aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Financial Management); Chief of Staff US Seventh Fleet; a Deputy Chief in Naval Material Command Headquarters; and in the Naval Sea Systems Command as Deputy Commander for Surface Ships.
Following graduation from the National War College in 1967, Admiral Montgomery was instrumental in planning, and developing the Navy's ability to provide career enhancing training ashore for the artificer ratings while simultaneously providing maintenance assistance to the fleet. Reporting directly to the Chief of the Bureau of Naval Personnel and to the Under Secretary of the Navy, he brought such a concept to fruition as the first commanding officer of the Naval Development and Training Center (DATC), on the site of the then dormant San Diego Naval Repair Facility. The success and benefits of this effort resulted in broad establishment of the DATC concept, at activities later to be known as Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activities (SIMAs).
Admiral Montgomery fondly recalls his days in DeHaven as being very special to him, a veritable destroyerman's dream, and certainly one of the highlights of his career. Homeported in Yokosuka, the DeHaven was continuously active as a permanent member of the wide ranging Seventh Fleet at a time of much international focus on the Western Pacific area. A time, too, when the Seventh Fleet's initial exploratory destroyer coastal incursion returned a US Navy warship to the Yellow Sea area after an absence of some fifteen years. This earned DeHaven an historical linkage to those future DESOTO patrols — DeHaven Special Operations off TsingtaO.
Admiral Montgomery was awarded numerous medals, awards, and decorations, including three Legions of Merit, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation, the National Order of Vietnam, Fourth Class. He was also awarded the Navy Gallantry Cross with Palm by the Republic of Vietnam.
Following his retirement in 1978, Admiral Montgomery continues in the private sector his interest and activities in maritime, defense, and general national security matters. He remains an active lifetime member of the Surface Navy Association.
A and E awards
Date
Sep 14, 1962
Last Updated: Nov 4, 2013
Comments
Yokosuka Based Destroyer Top Gun of Seventh Fleet
Seahawk Newspaper, Yokosuka Japan, September 14, 1962
Destroyermen of the USS DeHaven have joined the elite corps of Navy marksmen.
In firing their twin-mount five-inch guns the DeHaven gunners have succeeded in winning all possible gunnery awards for excellence.
Gunnery awards are not new to DeHaven. Some of her equipment has been decorated with the Gunnery "E" in the past. Now, all the destroyer's gun mounts and her directors are considered outstanding by the Navy and wear at least one "E" to attest this status.
DeHaven sharpshooters load and fire their mounts in competition with other ships of the Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet to determine award winners. The crews are aided in their tracking and fire control by an electronic array located in the ship's Fire Control Director. DeHaven director crews have maintained a sharp eye for the past three years winning three consecutive Director "E" awards.
When DeHaven is not engaged in perfecting her gunnery excellence or performing any of the many tasks as a Seventh Fleet Destroyer, she is searching for the elusive submarine in antisubmarine warfare operations. To prove her hunter/killer abilities DeHaven has won the Navy's Anti-Submarine "A" for excellence two years in succession.
DeHaven's Gunnery Department is not only outstanding when it comes to scoring hits with their guns. A perfect score has also been achieved in advancement in rate. The men in the department have had 100 per cent success in passing the Navy Service Wide Competitive examinations for advancement in gunnery rates during the past year.
Outstanding departments make an outstanding ship. DeHaven earned the Cruiser-Destroyer Force Pacific Battle Efficiency Award Within Destroyer Squadron NINE for the competitive year just completed. The award to the ship was made after she achieved the highest overall marks including administration, gunnery, engineering, damage control, air defense, communications, operations, and anti-submarine warfare. DeHaven crewmen now join the ranks of Navymen who are authorized to wear the coveted Navy "E"-the symbol of operational excellence. Approximately 1 out of every 13 Navymen are distinguished by the black letter "E" worn on their uniforms.
DeHaven's record of excellence has followed the ship throughout its 18 year naval career. The ship was commissioned in 1944 and in 18 months of service in World War II she traveled better than 150,000 miles accounting for three enemy aircraft, three assists and the sinking of two ships. She also participated in the Korean Conflict.
In 1960 the ship completed a face lifting by undergoing the Navy's FRAM II modernization process after which she joined the Seventh Fleet in October 1961 as a member of Destroyer Flotilla ONE, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan.
DeHaven, commanded by Commander J. W. Montgomery. stands as a tribute to the versatility of the destroyer type, and as one of the outstanding ships in the Pacific Fleet.
