{"id":46200,"date":"2024-06-04T13:49:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T17:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=46200"},"modified":"2024-06-04T13:49:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T17:49:51","slug":"ken-pennington-a-navy-veteran-of-world-war-ii-and-korea-dies-at-105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/06\/04\/ken-pennington-a-navy-veteran-of-world-war-ii-and-korea-dies-at-105\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Pennington a Navy veteran of World War II and Korea dies at 105"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland resident Ken Pennington, a&nbsp;veteran of World War II&nbsp;and the Korean War, died Saturday at age 105.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"266\" height=\"189\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/images.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46201\" style=\"width:477px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gary Clark, chairman of the Polk County Veterans Council, reported Pennington\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pennington enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1937, Clark wrote. Following basic training, he was assigned to the USS Decatur and then the aircraft carrier USS Ranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pennington saw duty in the European theater in 1942 while based in Iceland, Clark wrote. The next year, he was assigned to a newly commissioned aircraft carrier, USS Princeton, and remained on board through nine major engagements in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/PENNINGTON.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46202\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Princeton was scuttled after being severely damaged by a Japanese air attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Pennington was one of 1,361 crewmen rescued, as 108 died in the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Navy promoted Pennington to warrant officer in 1944, and he was discharged at the end of World War II, Clark wrote. He re-enlisted in 1946 and was assigned as deck chief on the USS Midway aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pennington saw action during the Korean conflict aboard the USS Mount McKinley and remained in the Navy until his retirement in 1967, Clark wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lakeland resident Ken Pennington, a&nbsp;veteran of World War II&nbsp;and the Korean War, died Saturday at age 105. Gary Clark, chairman of the Polk County Veterans Council, reported Pennington\u2019s death. Pennington&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[8698],"class_list":["post-46200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-ken-pennington-a-navy-veteran-of-world-war-ii-and-korea-dies-at-105"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46203,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46200\/revisions\/46203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}