Ships
- USS Long Island (CVE-1) Commanding officer from 26 December 1941 · Relieved on 13 April 1942
- USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) Captain from 25 May 1943 · Relieved on 5 February 1944
John Jennings Ballentine was born on 4 October 1896 and raised in Hillsboro, Ohio, the son of George McClelland Ballentine and Ora Eakins Ballentine. After Hillsboro High School he was appointed to the Naval Academy. He was officially in the Class of 1918, but the war hurried his class through and he graduated in 1917.
His first ship was the battleship Nebraska. From February 1919 to May 1920 he served in the battleship Arizona. He then went to Pensacola and was designated a naval aviator on 22 November 1920. In 1923, at the Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren, Virginia, he helped run the first tests of Carl Norden's prototype bombsight. In April 1926 he took command of Torpedo Squadron 20, six seaplane torpedo bombers working in the Philippines and tended by the fuel ship Jason. From May to August 1927 he commanded Observation Squadron 11, the floatplanes of Light Cruiser Division 3 (Cincinnati, Richmond and Marblehead), in Chinese waters. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 5 June 1930. From July 1931 to December 1932 he commanded Torpedo and Bombing Squadron 2B in Saratoga. He reached commander on 1 November 1937.
When the United States entered the war he became the second commanding officer of Long Island (CVE-1), the Navy's first escort carrier, on 26 December 1941. He was promoted to captain on 30 June 1942. In November 1942 he was chief of staff to Rear Admiral Ernest D. McWhorter, commander of Task Group 34.2, aboard Ranger during the invasion of French North Africa.
On 25 May 1943 he became the first captain of the new Essex-class carrier Bunker Hill (CV-17). He took her to the Pacific, and in November 1943 her planes struck Rabaul and supported the invasion of the Gilbert Islands. He received the Silver Star for his part in the Gilberts campaign. He was promoted to rear admiral and left Bunker Hill in early February 1944 to become chief of staff, Air Force, Pacific Fleet. On 27 June 1945 he took command of Carrier Division 7. With his flag in Bon Homme Richard he operated off Japan with Task Force 38 until 19 August 1945.
After the war he commanded Carrier Division 1 in the Mediterranean from 1947 to 1949, with his flag first in Midway and then in Franklin D. Roosevelt. He became vice admiral on 1 November 1949. He commanded the Sixth Fleet from 1949 to 1951 and Naval Air Force, Atlantic Fleet, from 1951 to 1954. He retired in May 1954 and was promoted to admiral on retiring.
In 1922 he married Catherine Howard Shield. In retirement they lived at Dogue, Virginia. He died at Bethesda Naval Hospital on 21 May 1970. His papers are in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
Date flags:
Long Island command end: Wikipedia and uboat.net give 18 April 1942; the live page gives 13 April 1942.
Bunker Hill command: Wikipedia gives 25 May 1943 – 5 February 1944, and uboat.net gives 24 May 1943 – 2 February 1944.
The Rabaul strike (11 November 1943) is from the Bunker Hill entry in Wikipedia and DANFS, not from his biography.
Sources
Wikipedia, "John J. Ballentine" (with cited Library of Congress papers finding aid).
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: John Jennings Ballentine (ranks; commands).
Wikipedia/DANFS, "USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)."