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Nile Kinnick airplane crash correspondence, 1943-1972
1972-06: 31858060072406-13
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[handwritten:] Iowa File M & C 112 Commanding Officer of Nile C. Kinnick's aircraft carrier - Lexington [newspaper clipping:] Admiral Felix Stump Dies; Headed Far East Forces By RICHARD SLUSSER Star Staff Writer Retired Navy Admiral Felix B. Stump, 77, commander-in-chief of U.S. military forces in the Pacific and Asia in the 1950s, died of cancer Tuesday at his home on Arbor Lane in McLean. Admiral Stump, a World War II captain of the carrier Lexington, succeeded Admiral Arthur W. Radford as the Pacific Fleet commander in 1953. Four years later, after the closing of the old Far East Command headquarters in Tokyo, he extended his Pacific military command to include all U.S. forces in the Far East -- a force of more than a half-million men in an area covering about half of the earth's surface. The 1957 command change gave the Navy supreme command in the Far East for the first time since early in World War ll. After retiring in 1958, Admiral Stump was elected board chairman of Asiatic Aeronautical Company, Limited, the parent body of Civil Air Transport, the Far East airline organized by the late Lieutenant General Claire L. Chennault. He also was chief executive officer of the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Admiral Stump was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1917 he served on the gunboat Yorktown. During World War I he was navigator of the cruiser Cincinnati, the flagship of the American Patrol Detachment in the Gulf of Mexico. He became a naval aviator in 1920. Four years later he received an Master of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [picture: man in uniform] [caption:]ADMIRAL FELIX B. STUMP[/caption] After serving as navigator of the Lexington he was head of the maintenance division of the Bureau of Aeronautics, executive officer of the carrier Enterprise and commander of the Langley, a seaplane tender he left a month before it was lost in a bombing attack by the Japanese south of Java. The Lexington, under Admiral Stump's command, struck her first blows against the Japanese in the Gilbert Islands in September 1943 and, the next month, participated in the strike against Wake Island. The Admiral next commanded a carrier division which helped capture the Southern Marianas, furnished air support to amphibious attack groups landing troops on Lyte Gulf in the Philippines and furnished air cover for convoys and assault ships in the occupation of Mindoro and the Luzon invasion, both in the Philippines. He returned to the United States in 1945 to be chief of the Naval Air Technical Command and later commander of the Navy's air force of the Atlantic Fleet. Admiral Stump's awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with two gold stars and the Navy Cross with a gold star. He leaves his wife, Elizabeth S., and a son, Felix Junior, and a daughter, Elizabeth Frances, all at the home. Another son, John, a Navy Lieutenant commander, was killed in the crash of a jet trainer plane in California in 1970. Services will be held at 3 p.m. tomorrow in the Fort Myer Chapel, followed by burial in Arlington Cemetery. The family requests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Naval Academy Foundation in Annapolis.
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[handwritten:] Iowa File M & C 112 Commanding Officer of Nile C. Kinnick's aircraft carrier - Lexington [newspaper clipping:] Admiral Felix Stump Dies; Headed Far East Forces By RICHARD SLUSSER Star Staff Writer Retired Navy Admiral Felix B. Stump, 77, commander-in-chief of U.S. military forces in the Pacific and Asia in the 1950s, died of cancer Tuesday at his home on Arbor Lane in McLean. Admiral Stump, a World War II captain of the carrier Lexington, succeeded Admiral Arthur W. Radford as the Pacific Fleet commander in 1953. Four years later, after the closing of the old Far East Command headquarters in Tokyo, he extended his Pacific military command to include all U.S. forces in the Far East -- a force of more than a half-million men in an area covering about half of the earth's surface. The 1957 command change gave the Navy supreme command in the Far East for the first time since early in World War ll. After retiring in 1958, Admiral Stump was elected board chairman of Asiatic Aeronautical Company, Limited, the parent body of Civil Air Transport, the Far East airline organized by the late Lieutenant General Claire L. Chennault. He also was chief executive officer of the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Admiral Stump was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1917 he served on the gunboat Yorktown. During World War I he was navigator of the cruiser Cincinnati, the flagship of the American Patrol Detachment in the Gulf of Mexico. He became a naval aviator in 1920. Four years later he received an Master of Science degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [picture: man in uniform] [caption:]ADMIRAL FELIX B. STUMP[/caption] After serving as navigator of the Lexington he was head of the maintenance division of the Bureau of Aeronautics, executive officer of the carrier Enterprise and commander of the Langley, a seaplane tender he left a month before it was lost in a bombing attack by the Japanese south of Java. The Lexington, under Admiral Stump's command, struck her first blows against the Japanese in the Gilbert Islands in September 1943 and, the next month, participated in the strike against Wake Island. The Admiral next commanded a carrier division which helped capture the Southern Marianas, furnished air support to amphibious attack groups landing troops on Lyte Gulf in the Philippines and furnished air cover for convoys and assault ships in the occupation of Mindoro and the Luzon invasion, both in the Philippines. He returned to the United States in 1945 to be chief of the Naval Air Technical Command and later commander of the Navy's air force of the Atlantic Fleet. Admiral Stump's awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with two gold stars and the Navy Cross with a gold star. He leaves his wife, Elizabeth S., and a son, Felix Junior, and a daughter, Elizabeth Frances, all at the home. Another son, John, a Navy Lieutenant commander, was killed in the crash of a jet trainer plane in California in 1970. Services will be held at 3 p.m. tomorrow in the Fort Myer Chapel, followed by burial in Arlington Cemetery. The family requests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Naval Academy Foundation in Annapolis.
Nile Kinnick Collection
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