James Edward Reinsel

“The USS Kidd is now preserved as a museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and my father’s engineering log entry, the only log entry made on the day of the attack, is on display there.

My father never forgot those men or that day. Every April 11 and Memorial Day he prayed for them and participated in veterans’ memorial ceremonies in their memory.”

– Tricia Kent, Documents Technical Assistant, J. Murrey Atkins Library

James Edward Reinsel, remembered by his daughter, Tricia Kent

James Edward Reinsel dove into the flooded engine room of the USS Kidd, retrieving bodies that were trapped.

James Edward Reinsel was a 24-year-old chief petty officer in charge of the engine room on the USS Kidd in the South Pacific. While on picket station on April 11, 1945, the USS Kidd and her division mates repelled three air raids. That afternoon, a single enemy plane crashed into the USS Kidd, killing 38 men and wounding 55. Fearing the fire would cause Kidd to sink, in an effort to retrieve and bring home as many bodies of the fallen as possible, my father dove into the flooded engine room retrieving bodies trapped underwater.