Andrew McKee

Who was Andrew McKee?

Rear Admiral Andrew I. McKee was a pioneer in modern submarine design and development. The destroyer USS Schenck was named for his maternal great-grandfather, Admiral James F. Schenck. McKee graduated from the United States Naval Academy at the top of his class in navigation and was commissioned an Ensign in March 1917. He served with USS Huntington until he severely injured both legs in a fall from the mast in August 1917. He was declared unfit for sea duty, and assigned first to the Naval Academy as a navigation and physics instructor, and then as the supervisory naval constructor at Bethlehem Steel Corporation Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts pending admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1921 he received a Master's Degree in Naval Architecture from MIT, and was assigned to the Navy Construction Corps.

McKee was assigned to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard following graduation, and then transferred to the New London, Connecticut submarine base in 1924.