Rodney Shelton Foss

Infobox Military Person
name=Rodney Shelton Foss
lived=birth date|1919|17|8 – death date|1941|12|7


caption=
nickname=
allegiance= United States of America
branch= United States Navy
rank=Ensign
commands=
battles=Pearl Harbor
awards=Pacific Fleet medal, Purple HeartEnsign Rodney Shelton Foss was a United States Navy officer during World War II. He was killed at Pearl Harbor in the opening attack, possibly the first American to be killed in the war.

Early life

Ensign Foss was born in Monticello, Arkansas on August 17, 1919 to George and Linnie Shelton Foss in the home of his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Shelton.

The family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where Rodney graduated from Pine Bluff High School. He attended the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University before entering the military. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on September 5, 1940 and received training at Northwestern University in Chicago and was commissioned as an Ensign.

Military career

Ensign Foss was stationed to Naval Air station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and was working a graveyard shift as the duty officer when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor at 0752 hours, December 7, 1941. Ensign Foss was due to be relieved by the Sunday duty officer in about eight minutes just as Japanese aircraft began strafing the flight line occupied by VP-11 and VP-12 and the two rows of the squadrons' PBY aircraft lined up neatly along the ramp area between the hangar and the sea wall. Because they approached from the north, the Japanese arrived at NAS Kaneohe several minutes before the rest of the attack force reached Pearl Harbor, making the shots fired at Kaneohe the first fired in the attack.

Ensign Foss was struck and killed instantly by a 20mm cannon shell during the first strafing run, making it highly probable that he was the first US casualty in the Pacific Theater. Excepting those Americans who volunteered to serve in allied military forces before the entry of the United States into the war, his would be the first combat death of the second world war. When the Sunday duty officer, Ensign Joe Smartt, arrived at the hangar to relieve Ensign Foss, he found Foss dead.

His body was returned to Monticello and he is interred in Oakland Cemetery.

Awards and Honors

He was posthumously awarded a Commendation, a Pacific Fleet medal, and a Purple Heart.

The "Buckley"-class destroyer escort, USS Foss (DE-59), was named in his honor. The ship was christened by his mother on April 13, 1943 at the shipyards in Hingham, MA.