honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Tom McGlaughlin, aide to Kennedy, dead at 75

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Retired Navy Capt. Thomas H. McGlaughlin, who served as an aide to President John F. Kennedy, commanded a destroyer in the Vietnam War and directed naval operations for the Pacific Command, died Feb. 18 in Honolulu. He was 75.

He served at the White House in 1962 and 1963 as a military aide to President Kennedy, and later spent seven years at sea off Vietnam during the war. He was the youngest destroyer commander in the Pacific Fleet on the USS Maddox, and was executive officer on the guided missile heavy cruiser USS Boston and the destroyer USS Pritchett.

He was director of naval operations for CINCPAC at Camp Smith from 1970 to 1974, then served as chief staff officer for the Military Sea Lift Command/Atlantic, in New York City until until 1979.

He retired from the Navy in Honolulu in 1980 and went to work in marine surveying for the R.W. Dickieson Co., in Kane'ohe, and as a once-weekly skipper of the tour ship Rella Mae.

His Navy decorations include the Bronze Star, and decorations from the government of South Vietnam.

McGlaughlin is survived by his wife, Moana McGlaughlin-Tregaskis; and brother George W. McGlaughlin of Pittsburgh.

Services will be held Friday at 12:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu, followed by military honors at 2 p.m. at Punchbowl National Cemetery of the Pacific. His ashes will be scattered at sea by the U.S. Navy.

Donations in his memory may be made to First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu, the Naval Academy Alumni Association or the Hawaiian Humane Society.