Kermit Robbins

Kermit Robbins (July 24, 1911 – March 31, 1944) was a sailor from Brimstone killed during World War II.

See Also: Scott Countians killed in war

Biography

Born July 24, 1911, Kermit Robbins was the son of Jonathan N. Robbins (1883-1974) and Julia Sexton (1886-1976). Both the Robbins and Sexton families have deep roots in the Robbins and Brimstone areas. Kermit’s third-great-grandfather was Timothy Sexton, a Revolutionary War veteran from New Jersey who moved to present-day Scott County after the war and settled in the Brimstone area.

His siblings included Lawrence Robbins (1905-1936), Virgil Robbins (1907-1909), Mattie Walker (1914-2015), Zona Walker (1917-2014), Ella Mae Hardwick (1923-1977) and Florene Basler (1930-1984).

When he registered for the draft in 1940, he worked for W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. at New River. He did not marry.

World War II

Seaman Robbins enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12) as a fireman first class. He was killed on March 31, 1944 while serving in the South Pacific. The ship participated in attacks on Japanese installations in the Pacific during that particular time. She joined the Fast Carrier Task Force at Majuro Atoll on March 20, 1944, and provided support to protect invasion beaches in New Guinea before conducting massive aerial raids against Japanese bases in the Caroline Islands.

Aftermath

Although Seaman Robbins has a marker at the Slick Rock Cemetery, that appears to be a cenotaph, as he was classified by the War Department in 1944 as lost at sea. He is also memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

He is listed on the Scott County Veterans Memorial in Huntsville, and the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville.