Robert James Keehan

Chief Engineman Robert J. Keehan died on 8 September 2012 in Escondido California and was buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California. He served on the commissioning crew of USS Tiru SS416 as an Engineman First Class from September 1948 to February 1950. Bob was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin July 25, 1923, to the late James Keehan and Agnes (Reedy) Keehan. In 1940 he  joined the United States Navy where he became a sailor in the submarine fleet. When World War II broke out, December 7, 1941, he was on the USS Sturgeon in Manila Harbor in the Philippine Islands. The USS Sturgeon was immediately dispatched on a war patrol to the area of Formosa. During the next three years the Sturgeon, operating out of Brisbane, Australia, played an important role in the history of the war in the Pacific Ocean where it ran eight war patrols and destroyed many Japanese ships. Late in 1944 he was reassigned to a new submarine, the USS Lizardfish, and served on two more war patrols. At the conclusion of World War II Bob remained in Hawaii where he distinguished himself as the star pitcher for the U.S. Navy's inter-service baseball team. Bob remained in the U.S. Navy until 1963 and retired as Chief Petty Officer engineering. Bob always expressed a deep respect for the commanding officers under which he served and his shipmates who prayed together as their submarine was being depth charged after an attack on enemy ships.