Ships
- USS Charles J. Badger (DD-657) Captain, 26 August 1945 – 22 September 1945
John Dandridge Henley Kane Jr. was born on 3 July 1921 in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of Captain John D. H. Kane and Cordelia Pringle Kane. His maternal grandfather was Vice Admiral Joel R. P. Pringle. The name he carried reached back to Captain John Dandridge Henley, a naval officer of the early republic who fought in the War of 1812 and took part in the Battle of New Orleans.
He attended St. George's School in Newport and entered the United States Naval Academy in 1938. As a midshipman he won class numerals in tennis and basketball. The Academy advanced his class on a wartime schedule, and he graduated in December 1941. The following year, while a lieutenant (junior grade), he married Suzanne Pattinson of Arcadia, California.
His first ships were the destroyers Fitch and Haraden. He then joined Charles J. Badger (DD-657), a Fletcher-class destroyer brought into commission in July 1943 by William Goodwin Cooper and later commanded through the Pacific fighting by John Henderson Cotten. By the Okinawa campaign Kane was the ship's executive officer. On 9 April 1945 a Japanese assault boat set off a depth charge close alongside. The blast stopped the engines and opened the hull to heavy flooding. For his conduct in that action he received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat V.
Cotten kept command through the summer. On 26 August 1945 Kane, then a lieutenant, became commanding officer of Charles J. Badger. He held the ship through the weeks in which the Pacific war ended and turned her over on 22 September 1945 to David Lombard Harris.
After the war he commanded Cavallaro and Alexander J. Luke, then served as flag lieutenant to the commander of the Service Force, Atlantic Fleet. In November 1948 he joined the staff of United States Naval Forces, Germany, as an assistant intelligence officer. In 1953 he took command of the destroyer Theodore E. Chandler. Later duty placed him on the staff of the commander in chief of joint forces in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and on the Joint Staff in Washington.
Between those tours he completed the intermediate course at the Naval War College and the senior course at the National War College. In August 1965 he commanded Springfield, flagship of the Sixth Fleet, at Villefranche-sur-Mer. From 1967 to 1969 he directed the Officer Distribution Division in the Bureau of Naval Personnel and received the Meritorious Service Medal. He next served as deputy chief of legislative affairs, and from July 1970 as deputy United States representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels.
His last active assignment was commandant of the Ninth Naval District and commander of the naval base at Great Lakes, Illinois. He retired in 1974 as a rear admiral, awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit for that duty. From August 1976 until December 1985 he was Director of Naval History and spent those years strengthening the Navy's historical program. He died on 6 August 2013 in Bethesda, Maryland, at the age of ninety-two.