Ships
- USS Intrepid (CV-11) Captain from 28 March 1944 · Relieved on 19 April 1944
- USS Intrepid (CV-11) Captain from 19 May 1944 · Relieved on 30 May 1944
Richard Kenna Gaines was a captain in the United States Navy. In the spring of 1944 he commanded the Essex-class aircraft carrier Intrepid (CV-11) on two separate tours. The first began on 28 March 1944 and ended when he was relieved on 19 April 1944. The second began on 19 May 1944 and ended when he was relieved on 30 May 1944.
Intrepid was still a new ship. Commissioned in August 1943 under Thomas Lamison Sprague, she worked up, crossed into the Pacific, and joined the fast carrier force. In January 1944 her aircraft struck targets in support of the landings at Kwajalein. In February she took part in the carrier attack on the Japanese base at Truk.
On 17 February 1944, during the Truk strike, a Japanese torpedo plane hit Intrepid aft. The blast jammed a rudder and made her difficult to steer. Her crew cleared the battle area by holding a course with the engines, brought her into Pearl Harbor, and then took her on to the Hunters Point yard at San Francisco for repair of the steering gear and the rest of the ship.
Gaines assumed command on 28 March 1944, early in that yard period, and succeeded Sprague as captain. For about three weeks he had charge of a fleet carrier alongside a shipyard: the progress of the hull and steering repairs, the care of the machinery, and the daily order of a crew preparing to take her to sea again. He was relieved on 19 April. He returned on 19 May and remained through 30 May, while Intrepid was still at Hunters Point and work on her steering continued.
Both tours fell in the weeks when the carrier was being restored after her first battle damage. After Gaines left her at the end of May, Intrepid finished the overhaul, went back to the western Pacific, and fought in the Philippines campaign, where kamikaze aircraft damaged her again. In March, April, and May 1944, Richard Kenna Gaines was captain of Intrepid.