Thomas C. Kinkaid - Early Career

Early Career

Kinkaid′s first posting was to San Francisco where he joined the crew of the battleship USS Nebraska, part of the Great White Fleet. During the next year, he circumnavigated the globe with the fleet, visiting New Zealand and Australia. The fleet returned to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia in February 1909. In 1910, Kinkaid took his examinations for the rank of ensign but failed navigation. While his classmates were promoted in June 1910, Kinkaid remained a midshipman, pending the result of a makeup examination in December 1910. In July, he developed pleurisy and was hospitalized in New York, New York before being sent to Annapolis to recuperate. At the time his father was in charge of the Naval Engineering Experiment Station there, which allowed Kinkaid to stay with his parents while studying for his navigation examination. In October, he was posted to the battleship USS Minnesota whose skipper, Commander William Sims, an Annapolis classmate of his father′s, encouraged Kinkaid′s early interest in gunnery. Kinkaid passed his navigation examination on 7 December and was promoted to ensign on 14 February 1911, backdated to 6 June 1910. While still at Annapolis, Kinkaid met Helen Sherburne Ross, the daughter of a Philadelphia businessman. The two were married on 24 April 1911 in the Silver Chapel of St. Mark′s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in a ceremony attended by a small number of guests. Their marriage produced no children. They enjoyed playing contract bridge and golf, and Helen was the women′s golf champion for the District of Columbia in 1921 and 1922.

In 1913, Kinkaid, now a lieutenant (junior grade), commenced a course in ordnance at the Naval Academy Postgraduate School. This consisted of four months of classroom instruction followed by tours with the leading naval ordnance manufacturers, and concluded with a tour of duty at the Indian Head Naval Proving Ground. Students had to undertake to remain in the Navy for at least eight years. After completing the four months in the classroom at Annapolis, Kinkaid commenced a three-month assignment at Midvale Steel, but this was interrupted after two months by the United States occupation of Veracruz. Kinkaid was ordered to report to the gunboat USS Machias for duty in the Caribbean, during which the ship participated in the 1916 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic. Kinkaid came under fire for the first time when the ship was fired upon from ashore. Machias replied with its machine guns. When one jammed, Kinkaid exposed himself to fire to assist in clearing the weapon. He fired it in response to gunfire against the ship. Machias returned home in December, and in February Kinkaid resumed his ordnance studies and went to Bausch & Lomb in Rochester, New York, where he studied the manufacture of spotting and fire control systems. In March he reported to the Washington Navy Yard, where he wrote a pamphlet on fire control. He also created a design for a human torpedo, but the Bureau of Ordnance decided that his concept was unsound. He completed his ordnance studies with tours at Bethlehem Steel, the Indian Head Naval Proving Ground and the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn.

In July 1916, Kinkaid reported to USS Pennsylvania, the navy′s newest battleship, as a gunfire spotter. He was promoted to lieutenant in January 1917. In November 1917, he was ordered to supervise the delivery of a newly developed 20 ft (6.1 m) rangefinder from the Norfolk Navy Yard to the Grand Fleet. On reaching London, Kinkaid reported to Sims, now a vice admiral, who then ordered Kinkaid to deliver secret documents to Admiral William S. Benson at a meeting with Allied naval leaders in Paris. Afterwards, Kinkaid returned to the United Kingdom and tested the rangefinder at HMS Excellent on Whale Island, Hampshire. He visited optical works in London, York and Glasgow to study the British Royal Navy′s rangefinders, and the Grand Fleet at its anchorages. On returning to the United States in January 1918, he visited Sperry Gyroscope and Ford Instruments to consult with them on fire control systems. Promoted to lieutenant commander in February 1918, he was posted to Pennsylvania′s sister ship, USS Arizona. In May 1919, Arizona was sent to cover the Greek occupation of Smyrna. For his services from September 1918 to July 1919, Kinkaid was recommended for the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, but it was not awarded.