Ships
- USS Copahee (CVE-12) Captain from 3 May 1943 · Relieved on 21 January 1944
- USS Yorktown (CV-10) Captain, 10 February 1944 – 29 September 1944
Ralph Edward Jennings was born in New York City on 14 June 1897. He graduated from the Naval Academy with the Class of 1919 and became a naval aviator. He reached commander on 1 June 1939 and temporary captain on 17 June 1942.
His first wartime command was the escort carrier Copahee (CVE-12), from May 1943 to 21 January 1944. She ferried aircraft to the South Pacific. Australian destroyer reports record her coming in and out of Brisbane over New Year 1944, escorted by HMAS Vendetta.
On 10 February 1944 he relieved Jocko Clark in command of Yorktown (CV-10), "the Fighting Lady." Two days later Task Force 58 sailed from Majuro for Operation Hailstone, the great raid on Truk on 17–18 February 1944, and Yorktown's planes struck the Japanese anchorage alongside Enterprise and Belleau Wood. He took her through the strikes on the Marianas, Palau and Hollandia and into the Battle of the Philippine Sea. On 20 June 1944 Yorktown joined the long dusk strike against the retreating Japanese fleet. He received the Legion of Merit for his command of Yorktown in that battle. Time later wrote that Jennings had taken the ship "through some of the Pacific Theater's toughest sea battles, including the crucial campaign for the Marianas Islands and the offensive at Truk." He was relieved by Captain Thomas S. Combs on 29 September 1944.
As a rear admiral (uboat.net gives temporary rank from 5 September 1943) he later commanded Fleet Air, Alameda, California (1946–47 and 1949) and a carrier division of the Atlantic Fleet (1947–49). He was chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group to Norway from 1950 to 1952, and deputy commander of the Eastern Sea Frontier and Atlantic Fleet (as SNAC words it) in 1952–53. He retired as a vice admiral in 1953.
He died of cancer in Manhattan in 1970, at 72. Time noted his death in its issue of 6 April 1970.
Sources
SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context), "Jennings, Ralph E., 1897–1971" (career chronology).
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: Ralph Edward Jennings (born 14 Jun 1897; USNA 1919; ranks; Copahee and Yorktown; HMAS Vendetta reports; Operation Hailstone).
Military Times Hall of Valor: Legion of Merit (Philippine Sea, 20 June 1944).
Time, "Milestones," 6 April 1970.