Franklin Van Valkenburgh was born on April 5, 1888, at Minneapolis, Minnesota to Frank and Jane Van Valkenburgh. He was their second child; he had two sisters. The family later moved to Wisconsin where he entered the Naval Academy on September 15, 1905. He graduated on June 4, 1909. After service on the USS Vermont and USS South Carolina, he was commissioned an ensign on June 5, 1911. Traveling to the Asiatic Station soon thereafter, he joined the USS Rainbow (Submarine Tender No. 7) at Olongapo, Philippine Islands, on September 11. He reported to the Pampanga (Gunboat No. 39) as executive officer on June 23, 1914, for a short tour in the southern Philippines before his detachment on August 4th. On July 1, 1914, Van Valkenburgh married Marguerite Horne.

After returning to the United States, now Lt. (jg.) Van Valkenburgh joined the USS Connecticut on November 11, 1914. Following postgraduate work in steam engineering at the Naval Academy in September 1915, he took further instruction in that field at Columbia University before reporting to the USS Rhode Island on March 2, 1917. The entry of the United States into World War I found Van Valkenburgh serving as the battleship's engineering officer.

Subsequent temporary duty on a receiving ship at New York preceded his first tour as an instructor at the Naval Academy. On June 1, 1920, Van Valkenburgh reported on board the USS Minnesota for duty as engineer officer, and he held that post until the battleship was decommissioned in November 1921.

He again served as an instructor at the Naval Academy. The Washington, DC newspaper Evening Star, announced the transfer in December 1922. He served there until May 15, 1925. He then joined the USS Maryland on June 26, 1925 and was commissioned commander on June 2, 1927, while on the Maryland. He then reported for duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations on May 21, 1928, and served there during the administrations of Admirals Charles F. Hughes and William V. Pratt.

He was detached on June 28, 1931, and received command of the USS Talbot on July 10 and commanded Destroyer Squadron 5 from March 31, 1932. After attending the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and completing the senior course in May 1934, Van Valkenburgh next served as inspector of naval materiel at the New York Navy Yard before going to sea again as commanding officer of the USS Melville from June 8, 1936, to June 11, 1938. Promoted to captain while commanding theMelville, on December 23, 1937, he served as inspector of materiel for the 3rd Naval District from August 6, 1938, to January 22, 1941.

On February 5, 1941, Van Valkenburgh relieved Captain Harold C. Train as commanding officer of the USS Arizona. Newly refitted at Puget Sound, Arizona served as the flagship of Battleship Division 1 for the remainder of the year, based primarily at Pearl Harbor with two trips to the west coast. On December 4th, the Arizona went to sea in company with the USS Nevada and the USS Oklahoma for night surface practice. After conducting these gunnery exercises, the Arizona returned to Pearl Harbor independently on the 6th to moor at berth F-7 alongside Ford Island. Both Captain Van Valkenburgh and the embarked division commander, Rear Admiral Kidd, spent the next Saturday evening, December 6th, on board the Arizona.

On December 7, 1941, just before 8:00 a.m., Hawaiian time, Japanese aircraft from at least four fleet carriers struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay in port at Pearl Harbor. On board the USS Arizona, the ship’s air raid alarm went off about 7:55 am, and the ship went to general quarters soon thereafter.

The Arizona took at least two direct bomb hits. Some sources say four but the damage inflicted makes the exact number uncertain. Van Valkenburgh rushed from his cabin and arrived on the navigation bridge where he immediately began to direct the ship's defense. A quartermaster in the pilot house asked if he wanted to go to the conning tower, a less-exposed position in view of the Japanese strafing, but Van Valkenburgh refused to do so and continued to man a telephone, fighting his ship.

A violent explosion suddenly shook the ship, throwing the three occupants of the bridge, Van Valkenburgh, an ensign, and the quartermaster, to the deck, and shattering the bridge windows. Dazed and shaken, the ensign stumbled through the flames and smoke and escaped, but the others were never seen again. A continuing fire, fed by ammunition and oil, blazed for two days. Some sources state that Van Valkenburgh's class ring was later found on the deck but other sources reported it was Admiral Kidd’s ring that was found.

Van Valkenburgh’s award of the Medal of Honor was announced on March 15, 1942. His citation reads: “For conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and complete disregard of his own life, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. As commanding officer of the U.S.S. Arizona, Capt. Van Valkenburgh gallantly fought his ship until the U.S.S. Arizona blew up from magazine explosions and a direct bomb hit on the bridge which resulted in the loss of his life.”

The telegram notifying Mrs. Van Valkenburgh of her husband’s death stated he was Lost in Action. On December 31, 1941, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox wrote a letter of condolence to Mrs. Van Valkenburgh and on March 11, 1942, sent another letter notifying her that her husband’s Medal of Honor and citation would be sent via registered mail shortly.

At this point, things get a little fuzzy. According to an interview her son Franklin B. Van Valkenburgh gave in 1991, it was several months before Mrs. Van Valkenburgh could accept that her husband was deceased. The telegrams words of Lost in Action gave her hope that he was still alive. It wasn’t until the son was able to speak with the unnamed ensign that the family came to terms with his death. Captain Van Valkenburgh was survived by his widow and three children.

Mrs. Van Valkenburgh formally received her husband’s Medal of Honor on July 2, 1947, at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Louis E. Denfeld, Commander of the Pacific Fleet made the presentation. Van Valkenburgh’s mother was also present.

Van Valkenburgh’s remains were not recovered as stated above. He is memorialized in Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Van Valkenburgh received many posthumous honors which include a Destroyer USS Van Valkenburgh (DD-656) which was laid down on November 15, 1942, at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corp. The ship was launched on December 19, 1943, and was sponsored by his widow Mrs. Marguerite Van Valkenburgh. When breaking the customary bottle of champagne on the ships bow, she stated “May this be the happiest ship in the Navy.” It was her husband’s ambition to have his ship so recognized.

The ship served until it was decommissioned April 15, 1946. It was recommissioned March 8, 1951, for the Korean War but decommissioned again on October 21, 1953. The USS Van Valkenburgh earned the Navy Unit Commendation for her service off Okinawa and was awarded three battle stars for her WorldWar II service and one for Korean War operations. The 1991 interview Van Valkenburgh’s son gave stated that he had served aboard his father’s namesake during his naval career.

The damage to the Arizona was so severe that she was not salvaged but left where she sank and the bodies of those who died aboard her are intombed within. The ships history records that the “cataclysmic explosion ripped through the forward part of the ship, touching off fierce fires that burned for two days; debris showered down on Ford Island in the vicinity.” The twisted metal that stood above the water line was removed but most of the ship remains underwater.

Legislation during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations designated the Arizona a national shrine. In 1958, Samuel Fuqua, who was also awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions on the Arizona on December 7, 1941, appeared on the television show “This Is Your Life”. This launched a fundraising drive for what became the USS Arizona memorial which was erected over the Arizona. It was dedicated on May 30, 1962, Memorial Day.

Sources and additional reading for Franklin Van Valkenburgh

54th Annual Reunion Army and Navy Legion of Valor, New York, 1944 (contains short biographies of both posthumous and living recipients)

Pearl Harbor’s Hidden Heroes: The 18 Medals of Honor Awarded for Bravery in the Hawaiian Islands During World War II: 1941, 1942, and 1945, Colonel Charles A. Jones, USMCR, Retired, CreateSpace, 2017.

USS Arizona history https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/a/arizona- battleship-no-39-ii.html

https://www.navsource.org/archives/01/39a.htm

USS Van Valkenburgh https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/v/van-valkenburgh.html

http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/656.htm

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Together We Served and on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

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Compiled by Gayle Alvarez, Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States

Van Valkenburgh, Franklin (MOH), CAPT