Charles Kleinsmith

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Charles Kleinsmith (28 September 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a petty officer in the United States Navy who was killed in action during the Battle of Midway.

Charles Kleinsmith was born on 28 September 1904 in Zionville, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the United States Navy on 26 October 1922 as an apprentice seaman. Until honorably discharged on 5 October 1926 as Fireman Second Class, he served on board several ships, including the battleships Wyoming (BB-32) and Maryland (BB-46). Kleinsmith reenlisted on 20 December 1928, and during the next 11 years, he had duty on board the cruisers Milwaukee (CL-5), Cincinnati (CL-6), Portland (CA-33), and Honolulu (CL-48). He reported on board the aircraft carrier Saratoga (CV-3) on 27 December 1939, and transferred to the Yorktown (CV-5) on 31 October 1940.

During the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942, Chief Kleinsmith maintained auxiliary power on Yorktown after an intense enemy bombing attack extinguished the fires in all boilers but one. Despite the stifling fumes, intense beat, and imminence of explosion, he performed courageously, enabling the fighting carrier to attain speed necessary for launching planes to oppose a Japanese aerial torpedo attack. At the end of the attack, Chief Watertender Kleinsmith was missing and presumed dead. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

The name Kleinsmith was assigned to DE-376 in 1944, but construction of that ship was cancelled a week later. The name was reassigned to another destroyer escort, Kleinsmith (DE-718). Before launching, Kleinsmith was redesignated as a fast transport with the hull number APD-134; she was launched in January 1945 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan.