A Chickasaw Shipmate: The Bill Kennedy Story, or Life aboard the USS Wedderburn (DD-684)

William "Billy Dan" Kennedy, was the first son born to William Douglas Kennedy, an original Chickasaw enrollee, and EuIa (Morrison) Kennedy, a non-enrolled Choctaw. Bill was born on July 17, 1925, near Ada, Oklahoma, on his mother and father's allotment land. His father, Bill Kennedy, was a highly respected elder at the Ada Indian Baptist church until his death in 1971. Bill's younger brother was the Chickasaw boxer Curt Kennedy. His great-grandmother was Lucy (Moncrief) Victor, the daughter of Mary Ann (Cheadle) Walker Moncrief Johnston, and a great-nephew to Governor Douglas Johnston. His great-grandfather was Alfred Victor, a well-respected Choctaw veteran whose ancestry traced back to Chief Apuckshunnubbee. This is the story of a "modern day warrior," a respected World War II Chickasaw veteran who was part of that "Greatest Generation," born in the prosperity of the 1920s, who then grew up in the hard times and disillusionment of the Great Depression. This is his story, and the story of the ship he served on during the war in the Pacific against the Japanese Empire. On October 5, 1943, Bill Kennedy reported for duty in the United States Navy. Shortly thereafter, he shipped off to the Navy boot camp in Farragut, Idaho. This inland naval training station was situated on the southern shore of Lake Pend Orielle, and opened only during the war. Every day during training, Bill Kennedy was wrapped in the beauty of the area where mountains and lakes came together to create a magnificent vista. He was one of nearly 300,000 men who trained at Farragut. Following boot camp, Kennedy applied for submarine duty, but was told there were no openings and that he would have to wait for a school or a ship assignment. He was assigned to "A" school in the torpedo-man's rate in San Diego. While there, he boxed for the Navy and won the Service Schools Command Heavyweight Boxing Championship in July of 1944. Like his younger brother Curt, Bill was a natural at the manly art of pugilism, winning the Kansas State Heavyweight Title in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1942. After graduating from his "A" school in September of 1944, Kennedy transferred to the submarine base in New London, Connecticut. He was excited about being a "sub" sailor, but his sixfoot, two-inch frame was not well suited for the confines aboard a submarine. He was embarrassed about being too big for submarine service and told his girlfriend and his mother that he was volunteering for sea duty. Kennedy also realized the need to get an education and not risk missing out on that just to enter the war. Therefore, he wrote home urging his younger brother Curt to get a deferment from the armed services until graduating from high school. His brother did not listen. By late November, Kennedy was aboard a troop transport, the USS General S.D. Sturgis (AP-1 37), steaming westward for Ulithi.1 On November 30, the Sturgis crossed both the equator and the international dateline at the same time, and in maritime tradition, Kennedy was initiated into the rare "Order of the Golden Dragon" for crossing both markers simultaneously. After arriving in Ulithi, Kennedy's new home was aboard the USS Wedderburn (DD-684) where he became a "blue jacket," the term used in the navy to denote the transition to a real sailor.2 In a letter to his Grandmother Mary (Mammy) Kennedy, Bill told her "he wished he could be there to help her, but that they had to get these little Jap[anese] out of the way so everyone can live a free and happy life once more." On November 17, Kennedy, as part of the crew of the USS Wedderburn, joined Task Group 38.2, a flotilla of warships built around the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid (CV-Il), the USS Hancock (CV-19), the USS Bunker Hill (CV- 17), the USS Cabot (CVL-281) and the USS Independence (CVL-22). Immediately, Kennedy jumped into the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. His first assignment as part of the Wedderburn crew was to protect the American carriers from enemy submarines while the carriers launched planes against enemy targets. …