Chafee, John Lester Hubbard (039083)

John Lester Hubbard Chafee
Personal details
Birth name	John Lester Hubbard Chafee
Born	22 October 1922 Providence, Rhode Island
Died	24 October 1999 Bethesda, Maryland
Nativity	United States
Religion	Protestant
Known for	United States Senator (Rhode Island)
Awards	Presidential Medal Of Freedom (2000)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Marine Corps
ASN	039083
Rank	Captain
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 23 (25 September – 23 November 1944)
Section	6A
Battles / wars	World War II Guadalcanal campaign Battle of Okinawa Korean War Battle of Chosin Reservoir

Awards and honors

Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000)	Combat Action Ribbon w/ 5/16" gold star

Navy and Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation w/ two 3/16" bronze stars (Three awards – Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Chosin Reservoir)	American Campaign Medal	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ two 3/16" bronze stars

World War II Victory Medal	National Defense Service Medal	Korean Service Medal w/ two 3/16" bronze stars

Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation	United Nations Korea Medal	Republic of Korea War Service Medal

• Audubon Medal (National Audubon Society)
• A bronze statue of Chafee was erected in Colt State Park, overlooking Narragansett Bay, in 2003

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John Lester Hubbard Chafee (22 October 1922 – 24 October 1999) was an American politician and United States Marine Corps officer who trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 23. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 66th governor of Rhode Island, as Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States senator.

Biography

John Lester Hubbard Chafee was born on 22 October 1922 in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Janet Melissa (née Hunter) and John Sharpe Chafee, into a politically active family. His great-grandfather Henry Lippitt was governor of Rhode Island from 1875 to 1877; his great-uncles included Governor Charles Warren Lippitt and U.S. Senator Henry Frederick Lippitt; his uncle Zechariah Chafee was a Harvard law professor and noted civil libertarian; and his cousin Frederick Lippitt later served as minority leader of the Rhode Island House. Chafee graduated from Providence's Gordon School in 1931, attended Providence Country Day School, and graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1940. He was an Episcopalian.

Chafee was in his third year at Yale University when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He left school to enlist in the Marine Corps and spent his 20th birthday fighting on Guadalcanal with the 1st Marine Division, which was there from 8 August until it was relieved in November 1942. On 14 September 1944 he was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to Camp Ritchie, where he graduated with Class 23 (photo interpretation) on 23 November 1944. In the spring of 1945 he fought in the Battle of Okinawa with the 6th Marine Division.

After the war Chafee graduated from Yale in 1947, where he belonged to Delta Kappa Epsilon and Skull and Bones, and from Harvard Law School in 1950; he married Virginia Coates and worked for a law firm. Recalled to active duty in 1951, he commanded Dog Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, in Korea as a captain. The author James Brady, who served under him, wrote that Chafee never served more nobly than as a rifle-company commander in the mountains of North Korea and called him "the only truly great man I've yet met in my life." His military awards include three Presidential Unit Citations, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Korean Service Medal, and the United Nations Korea Medal.

Chafee became active in Rhode Island politics in the early 1950s, helping to elect a mayor of Providence, and won a seat in the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1956, later becoming minority leader; he was re-elected in 1958 and 1960. In 1962 he was elected governor by 398 votes over the Democratic incumbent John A. Notte Jr., and he was re-elected by wide margins in 1964 and 1966. As governor he helped create the state's public transportation administration and the Green Acres conservation program, and in 1968 he chaired the Republican Governors Association. His daughter Tribbie died after an accident at a horse show in October 1968, at the age of 14, and he was unexpectedly defeated that year by Democrat Frank Licht.

President Richard Nixon appointed Chafee Secretary of the Navy in 1969. He elevated Admiral Elmo Zumwalt to Chief of Naval Operations over 33 more senior officers and, after the crew of the USS Pueblo was released by North Korea, rejected a recommended court-martial of its commander, Lloyd Bucher, saying that Bucher and his men had "suffered enough." He resigned in 1972 to run for the Senate, losing that year to Claiborne Pell, and in 1976 he became the first Republican to win a Rhode Island Senate seat since 1930.

In the Senate, Chafee made the environment his chief concern. He joined the Committee on Environment and Public Works in 1977 and chaired it from 1995 to 1999, helped shape the 1980 Superfund program, the Clean Water Act of 1986, the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and wrote the Coastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982. A moderate, he also worked on health care, chairing the Senate Republican Task Force on Health from 1992 and co-founding the bipartisan Senate Mainstream Coalition with John Breaux in 1993, and he sponsored the foster-care independence legislation later named for him. He chaired the Senate Republican Conference from 1985 to 1990 and sat on the Select Committee on Intelligence. In February 1999 he voted against both articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Chafee announced his retirement in March 1999 and died of heart failure at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on 24 October 1999, two days after his 77th birthday. President Clinton said in his eulogy that Chafee "embodied the decent center." He was succeeded in the Senate by his son Lincoln Chafee. The John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System and the John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge were named in his honor, and he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.

Research notes

• Guadalcanal
• Okinawa
• USMC officer; Okinawa, Korea
• Governor and Senator, Rhode Island; Secretary of the Navy

Gallery

After you are autoconfirmed, upload a photo and add [[File:Example.jpg|thumb|caption]] here, or set |photo=Example.jpg in the infobox.

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	77
Class_ASN	39083
Class_Name	CHAFEE, John H.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 22 October 1922 — Born in Providence, Rhode Island.
• 1940 — Graduated from Deerfield Academy.
• 14 September 1944 — Received Commission as 2nd Lt and assigned to Camp Ritchie.
• 23 November 1944 — Graduated with Class 23 (PI).
• May 1945 — Served with 6th Marine Division on Okinawa.
• 1947 — Graduated from Yale University.
• 1950 — Graduated from Harvard Law School.
• 1951 — Recalled to serve in Korea as Captain, commanding Dog Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division.
• 1956 — Elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
• 1962 — Elected governor of Rhode Island; re-elected 1964 and 1966.
• 1969 — 1972 Served as Secretary of the Navy.
• 1976 — Elected to the U.S. Senate.
• 24 October 1999 — Died in Bethesda, Maryland.
• August — November 1942 Served on Guadalcanal with 1st Marine Division.
• Married Virginia Coates.

Sources

• Wikipedia: John Chafee
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of John H. Chafee for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 2 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Chafee, John H. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 2 source files: JOHN CHAFEE (2021).doc, JOHN CHAFEE.doc)