Francis Stuart Low (1894-1964): World War II Admiral

Francis Stuart Low and gravestone

Requa Family Plot
PLOT 9

Rear Admiral Francis Stuart Low was born in Albany, New York in 1894. He was a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Annapolis in 1915. His second wife was Alice Requa, whose parents were Mark and Florence Requa, prominent East Bay members of High Society.

During WWI he served in submarines and later worked on submarine and torpedo research. Vice Admiral Low played an important part in the Allied effort to combat German sub­marines during World War II. He was Chief of Staff for a time to Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations, who di­rected the 10th Fleet.  The 10th Fleet, organized in 1943 to counter a German sub­marine campaign, used surface and air forces of the Atlantic Fleet and sea frontier forces. 

Ladislas Farago's book "The Tenth Fleet"

During World War II he also served in the Pacific, as com­mander of a cruiser division in the invasion of Okinawa and in strikes against the Japanese mainland. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which entered America into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked his top military leaders to figure out a way to strike back at Japan's homeland as quickly as possible. In response to the President's urging, Captain Low then an Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer on Admiral Ernest King's staff, presented the plan it might be possible for Army medium bombers to take off from a Navy carrier.

When Captain Low took his concept to the President and his Military General Staff, four squadrons of B-25 bombers of US Army Air Corps volunteers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle were formed and put into secret training. Thus of April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 bombers lunched from the carrier USS Hornet, resulted in Jimmy Doolittle's air raid against Tokyo Japan which marked the beginning toward victory for America and her allies in World War II.

After the war he was in charge of neutralizing all Japa­nese naval installations in Ko­rea, Commander of the Service Force of the Pacific Fleet and Deputy Chief of Naval Opera­tions (logistics). From 1953 un­til his retirement in 1956 he was Commander of the West­ern Sea Frontier.

 Sources: NY Times, John "J-Cat" Griffith, Ancestry.com, Find-a-Grave