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 1911 - 1979 (68 years)
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| Name |
Draper Laurence Kauffman |
| Prefix |
Rear Admiral |
| Birth |
4 Aug 1911 |
San Diego, San Diego, California  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Military Service |
U.S. Navy, WWII |
Draper Laurence Kauffman graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1933. Poor eyesight denied him a commission in the regular Navy. Employed by the United States Line Steamship Company, his travels in Europe alerted him to the danger of Nazi Germany. In February 1940, he joined the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France. On 16 June, he was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for two months. Released in August, he made his way to England and was commissioned a sub-Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, later rising to Lieutenant. At the height of the Blitz on London (1940 - 41), he served as a bomb and mine disposal officer, and achieved a high degree of proficiency in bomb disposal techniques.
Securing a U.S. Naval Reserve commission a month before Pearl Harbor, Kauffman was rushed to Hawaii after the Japanese attack, and there disarmed an enemy bomb, the first to be recovered intact for study.
After establishing bomb disposal schools for the Navy and the Army. LT. Commander Kauffman in 1943 organized the Navy's first demolition units - later to be known as Underwater Demolition Teams. After commanding all UDTs in the invasion of Saipan, Tinian and Guam, Commander Kauffman planned and directed UDTs operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
His first postwar assignment came in February 1946 when he was assigned to Joint Task Force One, the organization which conducted Operation CROSSROADS, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. Later under the CNO, as head of the Defense and Protection Section, he established the U.S. Navy Radiological Safety School, and aided in setting-up a comparable school for the Army.
In 1954, Captain Kauffman served in the Strategic Plans Division under the CNO, and in 1955 was appointed Aide to Secretary of the Navy, Thomas S. Gates, Jr.
In July of 1960, Kauffman was selected as Rear Admiral. In 1962, he became Chief of the Strategic Plans and Policy Division. In 1965, he became the 44th Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served for three years. His next assignment was as the Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in the Philippines, and Representative of the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, a billet once filled 25 years earlier by his father.
On 1 June 1973, Admiral Kauffman retired from the Navy.
-U.S. Navy biography |
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Draper L Kauffman.
Draper L Kauffman tribute from a USS Kauffman Cruisebook. |
| Death |
18 Aug 1979 |
| Siblings |
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| Person ID |
I7379 |
Nagel |
| Last Modified |
27 Nov 2014 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Birth - 4 Aug 1911 - San Diego, San Diego, California |
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| Pin Legend |
 : Address
 : Location
 : City/Town
 : County/Shire
 : State/Province
 : Country
 : Not Set |
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