Naval History and Heritage Command

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Clarence Henry Campbell was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, on March 31, 1911, son of Philip G. and Julia Catherine (O’Neil) Campbell. He graduated from Arlington (Massachusetts) High School in June 1928. For two years he was employed in various positions and in 1930 entered the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Boston, Massachusetts, from which he received his diploma (steam and electric engineering) in October 1932. He served as Assistant Engineer in various merchant vessels during the period 1932-1937, after which he was Assistant to the Marine Superintendent at the Mallory Steamship Company.

In May 1929 he enlisted in the US Naval Reserve as Seaman Second Class, for aviation training, at the Naval Reserve Air Base, Squadron, Massachusetts. He was honorably discharged in May 1933, and in June 1937 was commissioned advanced in rank, attaining that of Captain, to date from July 1, 1955.

Reporting for active duty in July 1940, he was assigned to the Auxiliary Type Desk in the Bureau of Ships, Navy Department, Washington, DC. He remained there until April 1941, when he joined USS Beaver as Assistant Repair Officer, and the attached to that submarine tender when the United States entered World War II, December 8, 1941. Detached in March 1942, he was Assistant Engineering Officer on board USS Henry T. Allen until December 1942, when he was ordered to duty in the Bureau of Ships, where he again served the Auxiliary Type Desk, and as Head of the Ship Repair Program for May 1944 until February 1945, and finally as Head of the Training Liaison Branch. He was released to inactive status in March 1946.

Ordered into active naval service, he reported in May 1946 as Head of the Naval Reserve Program, Bureau of Ships. He continued serving in that capacity until March 1951, followed by service as Ship Superintendent and Assistant Shop Superintendent as the Boston (Massachusetts) Naval Shipyard. A year later, March 1952, he became Officer in Charge of Ship Repair Unit No. Three, operating with Service Force, US Pacific Fleet. In July 1953 he was assigned to the Bureau of Ships, where is now serving as Head of the Naval Reserve Branch.

Captain Campbell has the Naval Reserve Medal with one star twenty years’ service); the American Defense Service Medal, the Clasp; American Campaign Medal; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; the World War II Victory Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal.

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