Kenneth Flint Larson (1915-1942)

LARSON, FLINT

Posted By: jane austin (email)
Date: 5/11/2016 at 12:19:16

3 At Spencer Are 'Missing'

Three young Spencer men were reported "missing in action" in telegrams received by their parents Sunday. All were members of the United States navy. Kenneth Flint Larson, fire controlman second class, is missing. He is the son of Mrs. Nellie Larson of Spencer and of Charles Larson, ordnance worker of Mead, Neb. The youth, a graduate of Spencer high school, enlisted Mar. 21, 1938. He spent a 10-day leave with his mother here last February. He is an only child.

Hartley Sentinel, Hartley, Iowa, Sept 17, 1942, p1

No confirming death notice found in this or Spencer papers.

Kenneth F. Larson lost his life in the Battle of Savo Isand, when the ship he was on, the Vincennes, was attacked by the Japanese in what has been called the "U.S. Navy's worst loss in a fair fight." Three hundred thirty-two men are known to be lost from this ship which sank in 3,000 feet of water two and a half miles east of Savo Island.

The ship sank within 20 minutes of orders to abandon ship after it was hit by two torpedoes, which rendered her engines useless, in addition to at least eighty-five five and eight inch shells. Battle time was reported to be forty minutes.

The battle was known colloquially among Guadalcanal Vets as "The Battle of Five Sitting Ducks."

Larson's final disposition is "Lost At Sea." He is memorialized on his mother's grave marker in Pleasant View Cemetery, Hartley, O'Brien, Iowa.