Death of Rear Admiral Harry John Patrick Foley: Served on the Blue Ghost

February 10th U-T San Diego "Rear Adm. Harry John Patrick Foley; fought in the Pacific in World War II" by Linda McIntosh.

Died after a fall Jan. 27, 2012, age 95, in San Diego.

Thirty-three-year Navy career that began with a handshake from President Franklin D. Roosevelt at his 1938 graduation from the USNA. Fought in seven major Pacific World War II battles as well as in the Atlantic on U-boat patrol.

At one battle, he came under fire from Japanese planes while being transferred between ships on a boatswain's chair.

He began his World War II career on anti-U-boat operations with Destroyer Division 66 in the Atlantic and Caribbean. After that, he served for two years on the USS Lexington CV-16 in the Pacific. Guns under his command were given credit for shooting down 14 Japanese planes.

At the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, he was control officer for an entire 40 mm battery of 64 guns. The Lexington was badly damaged, so much that the Japanese thought it was sunk on at least two occasions, causing Tokyo Rose to give it te nickname "Blue Ghost."

In 1944, he returned to the United States and held several stateside jobs until the end of the war.

He retired in 1971 and was born June 7, 1916, in trenton, NJ.

A Great One. --GreGen