While working on my family tree (still) I'm looking to see if the famous last names in my ancestors, are also, ancestors of the famous people we are familiar with. Todays cool connections? Henry Fonda, and Alfred Hitchcock

 

Fonda's patriline originates with an ancestor from Genoa, Italy, who migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century.

 In 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America.

 They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, New York.

Henry Fonda was friends and roommates with Jimmy Stewart (yup, I'm pretty sure I'm related to him too, via the Scottish Stewarts, as I recently found that the Mary Queen of Scots family of Stewarts are in my family tree) 

Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in WWII, for three years, initially as a quartermaster 3rd class (I shit you not, I was also a QM3) on the destroyer USS Satterlee. 

He was later commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Navy Presidential Unit Citation. He resigned as a full lieutenant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fonda

he first served as a quartermaster third class in the USS Satterlee (DD-626), and later while a lieutenant, as air combat intelligence officer in the USS Curtiss (AV-4). In these positions, Fonda—who in the words of his former shipmate, now retired Captain Charles Cassell, “carefully cultivated a non-celebrity image”-—not only contributed to winning foe war but also clearly impressed those with whom he served with his forehandedness and professional performance. They remember him with both personal fondness and great respect for his skill as a Navy man.

Henry Fonda and the U.S. Navy became formally assorted on 24 August 1942 when, at age 37, Fonda enlisted as a seaman recruit at Los Angeles. In due course he was sent to boot camp and quartermaster A school at San Diego. His performance was such that he was meritoriously advanced to quartermaster third class and assigned in May 1943 to the Satterlee, a Gleaves-class destroyer then nearing completion in the builder’s ways at the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation. There he and other newly assigned crewmen began the work of readying the ship for sea.

In August, 1943 “The ship received orders for Fonda’s transfer to New York, for Officer’s Training, but conveniently pigeon-holed them.” Cassell recalls that:

“Fonda liked the ship and was eager to go to sea. . . . he had taken no action to get a commission . . . [but] we persuaded him, I think, that his talents were not being fully utilized and he could serve the Navy bests as an officer.”

He agreed to be commissioned, but on “the condition that he could make our first cruise, stay aboard until we got to Norfolk. . . .” The cruise was uneventful, filled with normal at-sea routine, and Fonda qualified as the best refueling-at-sea helmsman. Both Witherow and Cassell remember that “He really wanted to go to sea, especially after all his hours and weeks of preparation.”

September 1943, “Fonda, H.J., QM3, transferred to local receiving station for further transfer to Commandant 3rd Naval District for assignment by Bureau of Naval Personnel.”

Proceeding to New York, Fonda was commissioned a lieutenant (junior grade) and thereupon ordered to the staff of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, where he was to make training movies at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Anacostia. 

He tired of this mundane duty, however, so he applied for duty aboard a ship in a war zone The Navy delayed granting that request, however. After slightly more than a month in Washington, Fonda was ordered to NAS Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where he was trained as an air combat intelligence officer.

 Between 4 October 1943 and 18 March 1944, he learned the basics of coding, photo interpretation, et cetera. Fonda excelled in his work, finishing in the upper quarter of his class. His wish to serve in a war zone was finally granted in the spring of 1944. After a short leave, he began the journey to the seaplane tender Curtiss, flagship of Vice Admiral Hoover, Commander Forward Area Central Pacific.

Fonda’s duties focused on air operations, specifically the interpretation and evaluation of masses of photographic and other intelligence material required to carry forward •he invasion of the Marianas and later Iwo Jima.

Cook recalls Fonda as one of the first staff officers to seek him out. In addition, he conducted detailed briefings with VPB-216 pilots and aircrews on the activities of the Japanese so that he might better grasp the materials he was reviewing.

Hard work, application to his duties, and an interest in others characterized his service. White recalls when the ship was at Saipan in December 1944. Tokyo Rose broadcast that she knew where the Curtiss was, who Admiral Hoover was, and even that the movie actor Henry Fonda was on board. Most important, she said that the Japanese Navy was going forth to sink the ship, and as White remembers it, “We believed her, and the ship got underway.” 

During the air attack this very nearly happened, and after the attack, Fonda—by then promoted to full lieutenant—and two sailors dove into the water around the ship to identify an aircraft shot down by the Curtiss' s gun crews. White further recalls, “We weren’t sure how he figured it out, but he told the Admiral to launch an air strike at Pagan Island, and we weren’t attacked for almost two weeks.”

Fonda recovered the dead Japanese aviator’s chart board and from it, together with other materials, Fonda concluded that an attack on Pagan was both appropriate and necessary.

The quality of Henry Fonda’s service to the Navy is captured in a citation for the Bronze Star Medal that he was awarded in August 1945: “He contributed materially to the planning and execution of air operations which effectively supported the Marianas, Western Carolines and Iwo Jima Campaigns.

 
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1991/april/henry-fonda-and-us-navy