PFC ROBERT J. McKENNA
140th Military Police Company
Killed in the line of duty on February 22, 1966 while manning the main gate at Fort Gordon, GA.
PFC McKenna stopped an outbound vehicle for a routine check at approximately 2030 hours. Unknown to McKenna, the vehicle's two occupants were interstate flight fugitives out of SC who earlier in the evening had robbed stores and shot a person in South Carolina. The fugitives came on base to avoid pursuing law enforcements from many agencies. The fugitives thought McKenna knew of their warrants and his reason for stopping them. They exited their vehicle, overpowered and disarmed the unsuspecting McKenna, and murdered him by shooting him in the mouth. McKenna succumbed to his fatal wounds approximately 2 hours later. The fugitives were arrested the next day and were sentenced to prison following trial.
In tribute to McKenna, the main gate was renamed McKenna Gate in 1966. The 140th Military Police Company and the Military Police Training Brigade of Fort Gordon erected a memorial to honor McKenna which stands at the gate.
PFC McKenna's name appears on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC and the State of Georgia Public Safety Memorial in Georgia.
FALLEN MP HONORED BY GEORGIA
(from "The Signal", Ft. Gordon - May 9, 2003)
by Henry Holmes, Public Affairs Office
(from "The Signal", Ft. Gordon - May 9, 2003)
by Henry Holmes, Public Affairs Office
The Georgia Public Safety Memorial in Forsyth was the scene May 7 of a significant event to the family of Private 1st Class Robert J. McKenna and Fort Gordon. His name was formally accepted to be inscribed on the Memorial at the State of Georgia Public Safety Training Center. Members of the McKenna family were present. Military police from installations throughout the state can receive training at the center.
The significance of this event to Fort Gordon is that McKenna Gate or Gate One bears his name and has borne it since May 1966, 3 months after he was slain on duty as a 22-year-old military policeman on the fateful night of February 22, 1966. At that time Gate One was right off the Gordon Highway, which consisted of one traffic lane in each direction. There was no phone or radio contact with the gate, MPs checked cars leaving the installation at night, according to Roger Sargent, a fellow MP, roommate and good friend of Robert McKenna. Unbeknownst to McKenna, a night spot in Clearwater, South Carolina, was robbed earlier that night by two men, who fled the scene in one vehicle and then later used another vehicle to come to Fort Gordon to buy ice. As they were going out Gate One, McKenna stopped them, reportedly seeing weapons in the car. One of the culprits got out of the vehicle, shot McKenna in the head, and fled the scene.
Both men were captured a short time later in downtown Augusta. In December 1966 they were given lengthy terms in federal prison, according to press reports.
Sargent says the MPs received a call that an MP was down at the gate. McKenna was taken to the hospital on post but died a short time later. Robert McKenna is survived today by his mother, Dorothy, 7 brothers and 9 sisters. He was from Bladwin, Long Island, New York.
His mother, Dorothy, remembers her son, Bobby as a “wonderful loving person” and as the third oldest child was in charge of helping his 14 younger brother and sisters. “He loved the time he was in the service, had good memories and was so happy,” she adds. Robert’s sister, Fran Montore, echoes her mother’s sentiments of Robert as “just wonderful.”
When the plaque was unveiled at Gate One in 1966 designating it McKenna Gate, a citation was read posthumously awarding an Army Commendation Medal to McKenna. The commanding general of Fort Gordon at the time, Maj. Gen. Walter B. Richardson said, “The fact his assignment placed him in what might be called a peaceful environment, in no way detracts from the fact that his death was just as much in the line of duty as that of the soldier who died on the battlefield of Viet Nam.”
At the time he was murdered, Pvt. 1st Class McKenna had been a military policeman for six months.
Two years ago, Robert McKenna’s name was put on the National Law Enforcement Police Memorial in Washington, D.C., which also honors lawmen killed in the line of duty.
