| Home State | Civilian Occupation |
| Delaware | Dye operator for the DuPont Company |
| Branch | Service Number |
| U.S. Naval Reserve | 7225523 |
| Theaters | Vessel |
| European, Mediterranean | U.S.S. LST-282 |
| Awards | Campaigns/Battles |
| Purple Heart | Normandy, Southern France campaigns |
Early Life & Family
Walter Gardner Keen, Jr. was born on February 2, 1910, in Brandywine Springs, Delaware (or nearby Wilmington in some records). He was the second child of Walter Gardner Keen, Sr. (at the time, a leather sorter, 1888–1950) and Janet Barker Keen (1884–1976). Keen had an older brother who was either stillborn or died soon after birth at 714 Vandever Avenue in Wilmington on April 26 or 27, 1908. The family was recorded on the 1910 census living in the Representative District 8 in unincorporated New Castle County west of Wilmington, likely just northwest of Brandywine Springs known as The Cedars.
Keen’s family moved repeatedly during his childhood. By 1912, the Keens had moved back to 714 Vandever Avenue in Wilmington. Keen’s father was working as an insurance agent. On October 22, 1913, Keen’s father brought a nearby property at 718 Vandever Avenue. Keen’s younger sister, Grace Virginia Keen (later Blackson, 1914–2002) was born there on September 30, 1914. As of May 1, 1916, Keen’s parents were described as residents of Brandywine Hundred, the area north and northeast of Wilmington. A 1917 Wilmington directory stated that the Keens were living on Concord Pike north of Wilmington.
By the time of the next census, taken in January 1920, the Keen family had moved to 905 North Van Buren Street in Wilmington. Keen’s father was described as having his own life insurance office. The Wilmington Morning News reported on January 9, 1925, that a judge had issued a decree nisi after Keen’s mother filed for divorce “on the grounds of desertion. The defendant did not contest the petition.” She testified that “her husband left her August 30, 1922. The only cause for him leaving, she said, was that she was confined to her bed with rheumatism.” In 1926, Keen’s father remarried to Eleanor M. Tyson (née Weidner, 1897–1984) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There is no indication in extant records that Keen lived with his father again.
Keen was recorded on the next census in April 1930 living with his mother, sister, and four roomers at 1208 Jefferson Street in Wilmington. His occupation was listed as helper at a service station. According to his Navy personnel file, Keen dropped out of school after completing the 8th grade, while the 1940 census stated that he had completed three years of high school.
On May 23, 1930, Keen married Margaret R. Moore (later Shallcross, and eventually Fairlamb, 1911–1994) in Wilmington. His occupation was listed as salesman. The Wilmington Morning News reported on January 7, 1936, that Keen had been granted a decree nisi after filing for divorce on the grounds of desertion by his wife.
Keen remarried at the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Wilmington on May 26, 1938, to Dell M. Warner (1916–1982). The couple was recorded on the next census in April 1940 living at 1407 New Road in Elsmere, Delaware. Both were listed employed by a chemical company, presumably the DuPont Company, with Keen working as a dye works operator and his wife as a stenographer. On June 25, 1940, Keen and his wife bought a property on Delaware Avenue in Wilmington Manor, south of downtown Wilmington near New Castle. When Keen registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was working for the DuPont Company on the other side of the Delaware River in Deepwater, New Jersey. His address was listed as 122 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington Manor at the time he entered the service.
Keen’s personnel file described him as standing five feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 150 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes.
Training & Overseas Service
Keen volunteered for the U.S. Navy in the fall of 1942. On October 26, 1942, he was accepted as an apprentice seaman in the U.S Naval Reserve at the Naval Recruiting Station, Wilmington, Delaware. He was initially placed on inactive duty until October 30, 1942, when he began boot camp at the U.S. Naval Training Station, Newport, Rhode Island. When he applied for National Service Life Insurance on November 2, 1942, he requested that the $10,000 policy be split between his wife and mother in the event of his death.
Keen was promoted to fireman 3rd class on November 26, 1942. He was granted a 12-day leave beginning on December 1, 1942. At the end of his leave, on December 12, 1942, Keen reported at the Advanced Naval Training School (Diesel), South Richmond, Virginia. Two days later, he began an eight-week course that would qualify him to become a motor machinist’s mate. Upon completing the course on February 5, 1943, with a score of 87 out of 100, he was promoted to fireman 1st class, and transferred to the Amphibious Training Base, Little Creek, Virginia. He returned to Wilmington on leave on May 8, 1943, reporting back to Little Creek nine days later. On August 18, 1943, Fireman 1st Class Keen was transferred to the Amphibious Training Base, Solomons, Maryland, arriving there the following day.
On October 15, 1943, Fireman 1st Class Keen finally got orders assigning him to a ship. He would report for duty at the American Bridge Company in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, “for duty in connection with fitting out LST # 282 and [to be] on board when commissioned.”
American shipyards were churning out vessels with astonishing speed by 1943. LST-282 had only been laid down on July 12, 1943, and launched on October 3, 1943. Keen officially joined the crew of U.S.S. LST-282 on October 29, 1943. L.S.T.s (Landing Ship, Tank) were relatively small flat-bottomed vessels which could deliver cargo up to the size of tanks directly onto beaches during amphibious operations. LST-282 was commissioned on November 12, 1943, and began the long journey down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and eventually, the Gulf of Mexico, where the ship spent its shakedown.
January 1, 1944, found LST-282 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the temporary flagship of LST Group 29, Flotilla 10, Amphibious Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, the unit she would be with for the remainder of her career. New Year’s Day 1944 also saw Keen promoted to motor machinist’s mate 3rd class. In fact, it was the very day that the Navy introduced 3rd class petty officers in the engine room force.
On January 5, 1944, LST-282, set sail with a brief stop the following day to load ammunition at Belle Chasse, Louisiana. On January 7, 1944, she joined Convoy HK-177, heading east to the Key West area of Florida. Three days later, she joined northbound Convoy KN-288, arriving at New York City on January 15, 1944.
On January 20, 1944, LST-282 sailed for Davisville, Rhode Island, arriving there the following morning. She took on “420 pilings and construction material” and some soldiers as passengers to go overseas, and sailed for Boston, Massachusetts, around January 24.
As of January 25, 1944, Keen’s personnel file noted he was serving outside the continental limits the United States, as LST-282 sailed from Boston with Convoy HX-93, arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on January 27.
On January 29, 1944, LST-282 departed Halifax, crossing the Atlantic Ocean as part of Convoy SC-152. The ship docked at the U.S. Advanced Amphibious Base, Milford Haven, Wales, on February 15, 1944. The following day, she joined a small convoy sailing south to the U.S. Advanced Amphibious Base, Plymouth, England, arriving there on February 17. After discharging her passengers, she sailed north on February 21, arriving three days later at Roseneath, Scotland, where she unloaded her cargo.
From March to May 1944, LST-282 participated in exercises to prepare for the Normandy landings. She continued as temporary flagship of LST Group 29 until April 13, 1944. On April 25, 1944, Keen completed a training course qualifying him to become a motor machinist’s mate 2nd class, and he was duly promoted on May 1, 1944.
Normandy & Southern France
LST-282 participated in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The ship anchored in the transport area off Utah Beach at 0242 hours. Soon after, she deployed her landing craft. Around 0959 hours, she began transferring her cargo to a rhino barge to ferry it to the beach. She carried wounded men back to England.
After several journeys shuttling cargo and personnel to and from the Normandy beaches in June 1944, LST-282 moved to the Mediterranean Sea in preparation for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of the South of France. LST-282 departed Plymouth, England, on July 18, 1944, arriving in Bizerte, Tunisia, on July 28, 1944. Three days later, she sailed for Naples, Italy, to stage for the invasion.
On August 5, 1944, LST-282 participated in the first of several rehearsals for the upcoming operation. Three American divisions would land on the first day, with LST-282 involved in landing the 36th Infantry Division near Saint-Raphaël, France, at what was designated Green Beach. She began loading cargo on August 10, 1944, and sailed for France two days later with Convoy SM-1. She arrived near Cap Dramont around 0450 hours on August 15, 1944. The operation began smoothly with the Germans putting up considerably less resistance than they had in Normandy. That morning, LST-282’s landing craft landed troops at Green Beach. Around noon, with enemy fire still light, the “transport area moved forward 2000 yards from beach.” At 2055 hours that evening, LST-282 and her sister ships were ordered to the beach to unload her cargo. Soldiers from Battery “A,” 977th Field Artillery Battalion manned their vehicles on the tank deck.
Minutes later, LST-282’s crew observed a twin-engine plane flying parallel to the ship in the opposite direction. The executive officer, Lieutenant William Mace, observed the ignition of a Henschel Hs 293 guided bomb’s rocket motor, which he initially thought was friendly fire attacking the enemy plane. The Hs 293, one of the world’s first guided munitions, had entered combat about a year earlier. Its most infamous success was the sinking of the transport H.M.T. Rohna, killing over 1,000 American soldiers. The Allies had developed countermeasures to jam the radio frequencies that the German aircrews used to guide the bomb, but they were not always successful.
LST-282’s captain, Lieutenant Lawrence E. Gilbert (1917–2002), observed a falling object through his binoculars, which suddenly changed course straight for his ship. When the Hs 293 got closer, the flare on its tail became visible and the captain identified the object as a radio-controlled bomb. LST-282 was just off the beach with no room to take evasive action. Her antiaircraft guns opened fire just before impact, to no avail.
The bomb penetrated the deck and exploded in or near the engine room. LST-282 burst into flame and began to list. The explosion had rendered most of the vessel’s firefighting equipment useless. Belowdecks, the lights went out. Some auxiliary engine room personnel donned gas masks and escaped the smoke-filled ship. Ammunition, both the ship’s and shells for the Army artillery aboard, began cooking off. The crew tried without success to open the bow doors, leaving many soldiers trapped in their vehicles on the burning tank deck. Some of the soldiers were able to escape via a collapsed elevator that had formed a ramp.
Only a handful of the ship’s rafts could be launched. The death toll may have been higher if the ship had not been so close to the beach. Several of LST-282’s landing craft and other small vessels helped rescue survivors. Out of control, the ship drifted onto the beach, gutted by fire. At least 18 sailors and 26 soldiers were killed in the attack.
Joseph C. York (1885–1957) and his wife, Nadine Lewis York (1905–1990), who lost their son, Baker 2nd Class Thurlow Duane York (1924–1944), in the sinking, researched the LST-282 during and immediately after the war. According to their 1946 account, Keen was in the port 40 mm gun tub directly above where the bomb exploded:
In the port 40MM gun tub when the bomb strikes are: Duane York, baker 2/C, Jack Capps, SK 1/C, John Deel, C 2/C, and Walter Keen, MoMM. Only one has survived — Jack Capps. Jack has suffered a very severe wound in the left arm — almost a complete severance. Someway, not clear, he finds himself outside the gun tub, dazed. He is found by Paul Pearson, EM 3/C, who carries him out through the smoke of the smokepots piled on the boat deck between the port and starboard gun tubs, and hands him down to others who place him in a life raft. […] Cries are heard coming through from the vicinity of the port gun tub. Some of the boys say they can see Duane in the tub by the light of the fire rushing down on them. Walter is not seen again.
The sole survivor of the gun mount, Storekeeper 1st Class Jack Carl Capps (1923–2009), was hospitalized for nearly two years and suffered permanent injuries to his arm. He met his future wife at the hospital and raised three sons with her.
Journal-Every Evening announced on September 2, 1944, that Keen was missing in action. With no indication that Keen could have survived, under Public Law 490 the Navy issued a finding of death effective one year and one day after his death: August 16, 1945.
Keen was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.
Journal-Every Evening reported that on October 14, 1945, Keen “was honored yesterday morning in Holy Trinity Lutheran Church following the regular service. The Rev. James F. Kelly, pastor, offered prayer.”
Keen’s wife, Dell Warner Keen, joined the U.S. Navy’s women’s auxiliary, the W.A.V.E.S., either on January 1, 1945, or February 8, 1945. She reached the grade of hospital attendant 1st class, serving at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later in Washington, D.C. She returned to Delaware to attend the service at Holy Trinity. Soon after, she remarried to Arthur A. Brantley (1913– 1979), a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of World War II. The couple obtained a marriage license in Rockville, Maryland, around October 23, 1945. She was discharged from the W.A.V.E.S. on February 15, 1946. The Brantleys raised one daughter.
Around November 19, 1947, primarily by using dental records, U.S. Army Graves Registration Personnel identified Keen as an unknown serviceman, designated X-17, who had been buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery, Draguignan, France, on August 22, 1944. It was only around February 7, 1949, that the Navy accepted that X-17 was indeed Motor Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Keen “from comparison of dental records, physical characteristics, location and date of death,” an identification “approved by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Department of the Navy.” Keen’s father requested that his son be buried at a permanent cemetery overseas. Draguignan is now known as the Rhone American Cemetery. Keen is also honored at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.
Notes
Place of Birth
Keen’s draft card and Navy personnel file give his place of birth as Wilmington, Delaware. Curiously, although his birth was indeed registered in Wilmington, two contemporary birth documents state that Keen was born in Brandywine Springs, then a resort area west of Wilmington and well outside the city limits. Brandywine Springs was very close to The Cedars, where the family was recorded on the 1910 census. It is unclear why a birth that occurred outside of the City of Wilmington would have been registered there.
Delaware Avenue in Wilmington Manor
Keen’s draft card on October 16, 1940, gives his address as 14 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington Manor. Property records state that the Keens bought their Delaware Avenue property on June 25, 1940, and sold it on September 4, 1943. The 1940 sale does not give an address, but describes the land as being on Delaware Avenue and mentions it is “also known as Lot No. 14 on a Revised Plan of Wilmington Manor[.]” There is no extant 14 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington Manor. The 1943 sale mentions the lot number but also describes the property as being 122 Delaware Avenue. Thus, it would seem their property was assigned the address of 122 sometime between October 16, 1940, and October 26, 1942.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Michael L. Keen for providing photos of Motor Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Keen. Thanks also go out to Cindy Russell Davis for her help in making sense of the Keens’ entry in the 1910 census.
Bibliography
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Last updated on August 12, 2024
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