Gerald Ketchum

Gerald Ketchum

Gerald Lyle Ketchum (born December 5, 1908 in Seattle , Washington , † August 22, 1992 in Plano , Texas ) was an American rear admiral and Antarctic explorer .

Life

Ketchum was born the son of William Merton Ketchum (1867-1957) and his wife Edith Leone (née Bennett, 1884-1953) in Seattle. His parents initially divorced when he was six. Ketchum grew up in a foster family in Bellingham until he returned to his remarried parents at the age of 15. At 17 he left school and began training at the United States Naval Academy , which he graduated with the rank of Ensign in 1931 . During World War II he served on the destroyer USS Perkins , which sank on November 29, 1943 as a result of a collision with a troop transport off the northeast coast of New Guinea . After the war he returned to the Naval Academy as an instructor.

Ketchum was involved in three US military expeditions to Antarctica. With the rank of frigate captain he was given command of the icebreaker USCGC Burton Island as part of Operation Highjump (1946–1947). With this and the icebreaker USCGC Edisto he then led Operation Windmill (1947–1948), in which he also supported the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition , which took place at the same time, under the direction of Finn Ronnes . In the first Operation Deep Freeze (1955-1956) Ketchum was deputy chief of operations under George J. Dufek (1903-1977).

In 1959, Ketchum retired with the rank of rear admiral in the United States Navy . He then lived with his wife, whom he married in 1933, in Pine Bluff , Arkansas . He died in 1992 at the age of 83 in Plano, Texas .

In the Antarctic, the Ketchum Ridge and the Ketchum Glacier are named after him.

literature

• John Stewart: Antarctica - An Encyclopedia . Vol. 1, McFarland & Co., Jefferson and London 2011, ISBN 978-0-7864-3590-6 , p. 849 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ USS Perkins (DD-377). Information on navsource.org (accessed January 7, 2015).