Walter E. Reno

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Walter E. Reno
Walter E. Reno crop.jpg
Born(1881-10-03)October 3, 1881
Davis County, Iowa
Died November 19, 1917(1917-11-19) (aged 36)
AllegianceFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service 1905-1917
Rank Lieutenant Commander
Commands held USS Chauncey (DD-3)
Battles/wars World War I
Awards Navy Cross

Walter Elsworth Reno (October 3, 1881 – November 19, 1917) was an officer in the United States Navy. He died while on convoy duty in World War I, when his ship was accidentally rammed by a British vessel.

United States Navy Naval warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

Contents

Life and naval career

Born in Davis County, Iowa, Reno entered the Naval Academy in 1901 and graduated in 1905. While a junior officer, Reno served primarily in battleships. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1910 and during the next four years was stationed in the battleships USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin. From early 1914 until early 1916 he was Officer in Charge at the Chicago, Illinois, Navy Recruiting Station.

Davis County, Iowa County in the United States

Davis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,753. The county seat is Bloomfield.

United States Naval Academy The U.S. Navys federal service academy

The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy adjacent to Annapolis, Maryland. Established on 10 October 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, it is the second oldest of the United States' five service academies, and educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The 338-acre (137 ha) campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, 33 miles (53 km) east of Washington, D.C. and 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845 when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis.

Battleship large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, and a fleet of battleships was considered vital for any nation that desired to maintain command of the sea.

Lieutenant Reno then went out to the Philippines, where he took command of the destroyer USS Chauncey (DD-3). In the Summer of 1917, after United States had entered World War I, Reno brought his ship from the Far East to the European war zone. While on convoy escort duty west of Gibraltar during the night of November 19, 1917, Chauncey was rammed by British merchantman Rose and sank, taking with her Lieutenant Commander Reno and twenty of his ship's officers and men. [1]

Philippines Republic in Southeast Asia

The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest, the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Vietnam to the west, Palau to the east, and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.

USS <i>Chauncey</i> (DD-3)

The first USS Chauncey was a Bainbridge-class destroyer, also referred to as a "Torpedo-boat destroyer", in the United States Navy named for Commodore Isaac Chauncey. She was launched in 1901 and sunk in 1917.

Far East geographical term

The Far East is a geographical term in English that usually refers to East Asia, the Russian Far East, and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The term "Far East" came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 12th century, denoting the Far East as the "farthest" of the three "easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. Likewise, in Qing Dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries the term "Tàixī (泰西)" – i.e. anything further west than the Arab world – was used to refer to the Western countries.

Reno was awarded the Navy Cross "for exceptionally distinguished service in the line of his profession in command of the U.S.S. Chauncey in making the trip of 11,000 miles from Manila, P. I., to Gibraltar, under very unfavorable weather conditions". [2]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ US People--Reno, Walter E, Lieutenant Commander, USN at history.navy.mil
  2. ↑ Full Text Citations for Award of the Navy Cross for actions prior to World War I

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<i>Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships</i> book

The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy.

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