Ships
- USS McNair (DD-679) Captain, 30 December 1943 – 28 April 1945
Montgomery Lientz McCullough, Jr., was born in Missouri on 17 November 1907. He entered the Naval Academy in June 1926, graduated with the class of 1930, and was commissioned an ensign on 5 June 1930. He became a lieutenant (junior grade) in June 1933 and a lieutenant in June 1938.
On 7 December 1941 he was a lieutenant aboard the battleship Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. Japanese torpedoes struck the ship at her berth and she capsized. McCullough survived.
Wartime promotion made him a lieutenant commander in June 1942 and a commander that October. In 1943 he commanded the destroyer Gansevoort, from 20 June until 23 September.
McNair, a Fletcher-class destroyer, was built by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Kearny, New Jersey. Her keel was laid on 30 June 1943, and she was launched on 14 November 1943. McCullough took command when she was commissioned on 30 December 1943. He was her first commanding officer.
After shakedown and training, McNair sailed from New York on 5 March 1944 for the Pacific. By 14 June she was with Destroyer Squadron 54, screening the battleships that shelled Saipan. For the next nineteen days she fired in support of the troops ashore and patrolled for submarines. On 3 July she left that duty to escort ships between Eniwetok and Saipan. She rejoined the invasion force on 25 July and supported the Tinian landings with gunfire and screening. On 2 August she steamed for Guadalcanal to prepare for the Palau operation.
McCullough remained in command of McNair until 28 April 1945, when he was relieved by Bruce Percy Ross. Herbert Hamilton Ward commanded the destroyer from 31 October 1945 until she went out of commission on 28 May 1946. McCullough was promoted to captain in November 1945, and that rank stood on the permanent list from 1 July 1949. He retired as a captain. His wife was Helen Quigley McCullough, and their sons Martin Lientz McCullough and Michael Stuart McCullough both became naval officers after the Naval Academy. McCullough died on 14 September 1974.