Ships
- USS Biloxi (CL-80) Captain from 20 October 1944 · Relieved in June 1945
Paul Ralph Heineman had the light cruiser Biloxi (CL-80) from 20 October 1944 until June 1945. Before that he had been a North Atlantic escort commander. He left the Navy a rear admiral.
He was born on 7 December 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Northeast High School and Central Manual Training School, and he was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1916.
As a midshipman during the First World War he served in New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Vermont. He was graduated and commissioned ensign in June 1919. The Naval Historical Center note prints the rank as "Ensing." Hall of Valor places him in the class of 1920, the class whose course was cut short by the war. Uboat.net dates his promotion to commander on 23 September 1939 and his temporary rank of captain on 18 June 1942, which is the date the Naval Historical Center uses for captain.
Uboat.net gives him McDougal (DD-358) from 18 April 1941 to 10 September 1941 and Moffett (DD-362) from 11 September 1941 to 15 January 1942. The Naval Historical Center's note on his papers says that during the war he commanded Destroyer Division 13 and various task units in Task Force 24, and that he then served as anti-submarine warfare officer on the staff of Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet. The papers themselves are escort logs and files from Moffett, the division, Task Unit 24.1.3, and that staff job, mostly from 1941 to 1943.
He received the Legion of Merit, and a Gold Star in lieu of a second award, for North Atlantic escort duty. The citations, as Hall of Valor prints them from the Bureau of Naval Personnel information bulletins of August and October 1943, credit him with detecting submarines before they could concentrate, with frustrating attacks, and with sinkings and probable damage credited to ships of his unit.
NavSource dates his command of Biloxi from 20 October 1944 to June 1945 and gives no day of relief. Uboat.net ends it on 28 June 1945. In those months the ship was with the fast carriers for the Leyte operation, the Luzon strikes, the typhoon of 18 December 1944, the South China Sea run in January 1945, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and she was in the yard at San Francisco by 11 May 1945. The ship's DANFS entry does not name him.
On 30 June 1949 he was transferred to the retired list and advanced to rear admiral on the basis of combat citations. Hall of Valor also lists him as a retired rear admiral, with a home of record at San Francisco. None of the pages fetched for him gives a date of death.