Stephen W. Groves

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Ensign Stephen W. Groves, USN (1917 – 4 June 1942) was a United States Navy aviator during World War II who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism in the Battle of Midway.

Groves was a 1934 graduate of Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Maine and received a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Maine in 1939. He joined the Navy in December of 1940 and was commissioned in August of 1941. He boarded the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8) in December of that year. The Hornet began to transport Lt. Col. James Doolittle's bombers to Japanese waters in April 1942, setting the stage for the Battle of Midway, considered one of the most crucial Allied victories of the war.

During that battle, Ensign Stephen W. Groves took off nine times from his carrier; his was one of six American planes that fought off a vastly superior Japanese force that was trying to finish off the damaged carrier Yorktown (CV-5). The small group was credited with shooting down 14 enemy planes and causing six others to retreat.

Ensign Groves was the first East Millinocket serviceman to be killed in World War II. Today the American Legion Post in that town is named the Feeney-Groves Post, partially in his memory.

In 1981, the guided missile frigate USS Stephen W. Groves (FFG-29) was named in his honor at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.

Groves' Navy Cross citation reads:

"He fearlessly plunged into aerial combat against large formations of enemy aircraft threatening the American carriers in the Battle of Midway. Contributing decisively to the disruption of the enemy, he continued determined counterattacks against desperate odds until, finally overcome by sheer aerial superiority, he was shot down from the skies. He gallantly gave his life to the fulfillment of a mission important to the great victory at Midway."