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Photo # NH 84675:  VAdm. Thomas C. Kinkaid during the Lingayen Gulf invasion, Jan. 1945

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN (1888-1972)

Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on 3 April 1888, the son of a Navy family. Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1908, his early commissioned service was spent in the battleships Nebraska and Minnesota. In 1913, he began instruction in ordnance engineering and served in that field for the next few years. Lieutenant Kinkaid was an officer of the battleship Pennsylvania in 1917-18, was then attached to the British Admiralty and later in 1918 became Gunnery Officer of USS Arizona. He remained in that ship until mid-1919, when he was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance, in Washington, D.C.

Lieutenant Commander Kinkaid was Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander U.S. Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters in 1922-24. He was next placed in command of the destroyer Isherwood and in 1925-27 was assigned to the Naval Gun Factory. For the following two years, Commander Kinkaid served as Fleet Gunnery Officer and Aide to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet. Studies at the Naval War College in 1929-30 were followed by duty as Secretary of the Navy's General Board and as a Naval Advisor at the 1931-32 Geneva Disarmament Conference. He was Executive Officer of the battleship Colorado in 1933-34 and served with the Bureau of Navigation, in charge of the Officers' Detail Section, until mid-1937. Captain Kinkaid then took command of USS Indianapolis. Service as Naval Attache in Italy and Yugoslavia followed in 1938-41. In the months prior to U.S. entry into World War II, he commanded a destroyer squadron.

The year 1942 brought promotion to Rear Admiral and command of a Pacific Fleet cruiser division. During the last half of the year, he commanded a task force built around the aircraft carrier Enterprise, participating in the long and difficult fight to seize and hold the southern Solomon Islands. Rear Admiral Kinkaid was placed in charge of the North Pacific Force in January 1943 and took it through the operations that regained control of the Aleutian Islands. Moved in November 1943 from the cold of the northern Pacific to the steamy Equatorial region, Vice Admiral Kinkaid became Commander Seventh Fleet, a responsibility he held for two years as he directed U.S. Navy forces in their advance across the northern coast of New Guinea and up to Leyte in 1944, and through the Philippines and into the East Indies in 1945. After the Pacific War ended in August 1945, his fleet assisted in operations on the Korean and China coasts.

Admiral Kinkaid was Commander Eastern Sea Frontier and the Atlantic Reserve Fleet from 1946 until his retirement in May 1950. He subsequently returned to active duty with the National Security Training Commission in 1951-53 and was a member of that body for much of the rest of the decade. He also served with the American Battle Monument Commission for fifteen years, beginning in 1953. Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid died on 17 November 1972.

USS Kinkaid (DD-965), commissioned in 1976, is named in honor of Admiral Kinkaid.

This page features selected views of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 80-G-184952

Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN
,
Commander Seventh Fleet

Pencil sketch made at Leyte, Philippines, in 1945 by Commander Dwight Shepler, USNR.

The original sketch is held by the Navy Art Center, Washington, D.C.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 111KB; 510 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 84381

Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN


Portrait photograph, taken circa 1946-1950.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 52KB; 575 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-2749 (Color)

Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN

Photograph taken circa 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 55KB; 585 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-11650

Rear Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN


On board USS Enterprise (CV-6), 22 July 1942.
Note radio direction finding loop in the foreground.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 87KB; 590 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-259132

Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN
,
Commander, North Pacific Force

Reading in his quarters on Adak, Aleutian Islands, 14 May 1943.
Note his leather jacket, galoshes, and fleece-lined gloves resting atop his cap.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 68KB; 590 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-214898

Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN
,
Commander Seventh Fleet (right), and
Rear Admiral Daniel A. Barbey, USN,
Commander Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet

Confer on board RAdm. Barbey's flagship, 5 January 1944. They are examining a map of New Guinea.
Note small propeller used as a paperweight.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: SC 188839

Admiralties Invasion, 1944


Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid (left center) with General Douglas MacArthur (center) on the flag bridge of USS Phoenix (CL-46) during the pre-invasion bombardment of Los Negros Island, at the east end of Manus Island, 28 February 1944.
At right is Colonel Lloyd Labrbas, acting aide to General MacArthur.
Note 40mm quad gun mount in the background.

Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-46807

Vice Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, USN
,
Commander Amphibious Force, Third Fleet;
Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN,
Commander Seventh Fleet; and
Rear Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, USN,
Commander Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet
(listed from left to right)

Attend a meeting of senior officers of the Third and Seventh Fleets, at Seventh Fleet Headquarters, to plan the invasion of Leyte.
The photograph was released for publication on 20 October 1944, the first day of the Leyte landings. It was taken sometime earlier.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 84675

Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN
,
Commander Seventh Fleet

Watches landing operations in Lingayen Gulf, Leyte, from the bridge of his flagship, USS Wasatch (AGC-9), circa 9 January 1945.

Courtesy of Mrs. Thomas C. Kinkaid, 1976. When providing this view, she stated that it was Admiral Kinkaid's favorite photograph of himself.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 97KB; 590 x 765 pixels

Note:
a more distant version of this photograph is available as Photo # 80-G-47813.

 
Photo #: 80-G-308131 (cropped)

Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN,
Commander Seventh Fleet

Seated on board a motor torpedo boat (PT) in the Leyte-Samar area, Philippine Islands, 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 98KB; 590 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

Note:
a uncropped version of this photograph is available as Photo # 80-G-308131.

 
Photo #: 80-G-490506

Surrender of Japanese Forces in Southern Korea, September 1945


U.S. delegates Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid and Lieutenant General John R. Hodge sign surrender documents, during ceremonies in the Government Building at Keijo (Seoul), Korea, 9 September 1945.
U.S. representatives present include (seated along table, left to right):
Rear Admiral Francis S. Low;
Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey;
Admiral Kinkaid;
Lieutenant General Hodge;
Major General A.V. Arnold;
Major General G.X. Cheeves and
Brigadier General Joseph T. Ready.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 30 November 2001