Background
Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on 3 April 1888, the second child and only son of Thomas Wright Kinkaid, a naval officer, and his wife Virginia Lee née Cassin.
Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on 3 April 1888, the second child and only son of Thomas Wright Kinkaid, a naval officer, and his wife Virginia Lee née Cassin.
Thomas Wright Kinkaid was on leave from the U.S. Navy and employed at the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. When Thomas was only a year old, his father was posted to USS Pinta, and the family moved to Sitka, Alaska, where a third child, Dorothy, was born in 1890. Over the next few years the family successively moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Norfolk, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland and Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Thomas attended Western High School for three years before entering a U.S. Naval Academy preparatory school. He sought and secured an appointment to Annapolis from President Theodore Roosevelt, and was asked to take the admission examination. The Navy was undergoing a period of expansion, and the intake of midshipmen was double that of two years earlier. Of the 350 who took the examination, 283 were admitted. The class was the largest since the Academy had opened in 1845.
Kinkaid was admitted to Annapolis as a midshipman in July 1904. His instructors included four future Chiefs of Naval Operations: William S. Benson, William V. Pratt, William D. Leahy and Ernest J. King. In 1905 he took an instructional cruise on USS Nevada. He also spent six weeks on USS Hartford, his only experience of a warship under sail. In subsequent years, his training cruises were on USS Newark and USS Arkansas which, while much newer, were by this time also obsolete.
He participated in sports, particularly in rowing, earning a seat in the Academy's eight-oar racing shell. He graduated on 5 June 1908, ranked 136th in his class of 201.
Thomas Kinkaid promoted through grades to admiral. Technical advisor to American delegate, General Disarmament Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, January-July 1932. Naval attache American Embassy, Rome (Italy), November 1938-March 1941. Additional duty naval attache Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1939-1941. Promoted rear admiral, 1941. He commanded cruiser group action off Bougainville, February 20, 1942.
Thomas Kinkaid commanded Enterprise carrier group, Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings, August 7-9, 1942. Battle of Eastern Solomons, August 25, 1942, Santa Cruz Islands, October 26, 1942. Guadalcanal, November 15, 1942.
Commander North Pacific Force in Aleutian campaign, January-October 1943. Promoted vice admiral, June 1943. Commander 7th Fleet, and commander Allied Naval Forces, Southwest Pacific Area, November 1943-September 1945, New Guinea and Philippine campaigns, including battle for Leyte Gulf, October 25, 1944.
Promoted admiral, April 1945. Landed 24th Corps in Korea, September 1945, and with Lieutenant General Hodge, took surrender of Japanese Army and Navy in Seoul. Landed American Marines under Major General Rockay at Taku and at Tsingtao, China.
Transported 5 Chinese armies from Haiphong, Kowloon and Ningpo, landed them at Formosa, Chingwantao and Tsingtao. Detached 7th Fleet November 19, 1945. Took commanded Eastern Sea Frontier and Atlantic Reserve, January 16, 1946.
He retired from active duty May 1, 1950.
Member National Security Training Commission Decorations; Member Society Cincinnatus in State N.H. Clubs: Chevy Chase; Army-Navy; Aibi (Washington); Union (New York.