Vincent P. de Poix

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Vice Admiral Vincent P. de Poix

Vincent Paul de Poix (born August 13, 1916 in Los Angeles , California - † February 3, 2015 in Oregon ) was an American Vice Admiral . De Poix gained greater fame as the first in command of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) . After serving in the Navy, he was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1972 to 1974 .

Life

Early life

Vincent Paul de Poix was the son of Elzear Paul and Grace L. de Poix. He attended Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua and then the Severn School, a college preschool of the United States Naval Academy in Maryland . Then de Poix went to Lafayette College , before he finally moved to the United States Naval Academy in 1935. De Poix graduated there with honors in 1939.

Military career

Vincent P. de Poix with the rank of Vice Admiral

On June 1, 1939, de Poix came on board the USS Minneapolis (CA-36) as an ensign . A year later he moved to the USS Sicard (DM-21) . After training as a naval aviator, de Poix was assigned to the Advance Carrier Training Force in San Diego . From June 1942 to August 1943, de Poix was deployed in the South Pacific. Among other things, he was involved in operations with Flight Unit 6 (VF-6) on board the USS Enterprise (CV-6) during the Battle of Guadalcanal and the USS Saratoga (CV-3) .

After the war Vincent de Poix was from 1948 in command of Kampfgeschwaders 172 (VF-172) based in Florida. From 1950 to 1952, de Poix was employed by the Bureau of Ordnance Research and Development Division Aviation Ordnance Branch in Washington, DC . He then worked as an orderly officer for the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet . He remained in this position until he took command of the Air Development Squadron (VX-4) at Point Mugo in January 1957 .

In March 1959, de Poix became the chief officer of the aircraft tender USS Albemarle (AV-5) . A year later, however, de Poix moved as deputy director to the Atomic Energy Commission Reactor Development Division Office, which dealt among other things with the reactors of the US warships .

In September 1960 Vincent de Poix was appointed first in command of the new aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65), as he had experience with the reactors installed in the ship through his previous activities. On September 24, 1960, the ship was launched as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and was put into service on November 25, 1961. During the construction of the Enterprise , five portholes from the old Enterprise (on which he was also stationed during the war) were installed on the new ship at de Poix's request . On June 20, 1963, de Poix gave up his command and then attended the National War College in Washington. From 1964 de Poix worked in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations . After a brief assignment as head of an aircraft carrier fleet (Carrier Division 7) in August 1966, he returned to this position.

Defense Intelligence Agency

In July 1972, Vincent de Poix became deputy head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Just a month later, he was elected director. de Poix was the first naval officer to hold this post. He pushed ahead with the restructuring of the organization that his predecessor had already started. By 1973, DIA had reduced the number of people stationed in Vietnam by a third. The Watergate Affair and the Yom Kippur War also fell under his term of office, which was described as “stormy” . de Poix remained in office until September 1974.

Late years

After serving at DIA, de Poix became President of Teledyne Technologies until he retired after ten years in that position. Vincent P. de Poix was married to Betty Ann Rose de Poix until her death in April 1991. The couple had four children together. He last lived in Oregon, where he died on February 3, 2015 at the age of 98. At his own request, there was no public obituary. De Poix has received many awards for his services.

Awards

Web links

Commons : Vincent P. de Poix  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vincent Paul de Poix. In: Naval History and Heritage Command. June 8, 2017, Retrieved May 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Barrett Tillman: Enterprise: America's Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II . Simon & Schuster , New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-4391-9089-0 , page 258.
  3. ↑ Ellsworth L. Owens, Jr: Commanding Officer's. In: cvn65.us. July 2001, Retrieved May 28, 2019 .
  4. ^ History: Former Directors of DIA. In: Defense Intelligence Agency. Retrieved May 28, 2019 .
  5. ↑ United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations: Department of Defense Appropriations for ... . United States Government Publishing Office , Washington, DC 1973, Part 9, p. 406.
  6. ^ VADM Vincent P. De Poix, USN. In: Defense Intelligence Agency. Retrieved May 28, 2019 .
  7. ^ VADM Vincent Paul de Poix. In: Find a Grave . January 17, 2018, accessed May 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME De Poix, Vincent P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Poix, Vincent Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Vice Admiral
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 2015
Place of death Oregon , United States