Abbot’s Commanding Officers:
Willard Wendell DeVenter
April 1956 — April 19, 1958
Summary of oral interview given in 1996
Willard Wendell DeVenter grew up in California before entering the Naval Academy, class of 1941.
As an ensign, he was aboard the destroyer Farragut during the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941.
After serving on several destroyers, he was assigned to the battleship Arkansas, participating in convoy duty, the Normandy Invasion, and the invasion of Southern France. He then served in the Pacific, participating in the battleship Arkansas’s operations at Ulithi, Iwo Jima, Luzon and Okinawa.
Post-war duty included the battleship Mississippi and post-graduate school at M.I.T., and of course command of Abbot.
Captain DeVenter died on 25 May 2000 at age 81, and is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego.
Source:
Willard W. DeVenter Oral History Interview
Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library
East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.