Rear Admiral Frederick Lois Riefkohl[needs IPA] (February 27, 1889 – September 1969), a native of Maunabo, Puerto Rico, was an officer in the United States Navy and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and to be awarded the Navy Cross.

[4] His older brother was Rudolph W. Riefkohl, who during World War I played an instrumental role in helping the people of Poland overcome the 1919 typhus epidemic.

These included the towns of Arroyo, Puerto Rico; Christainsted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands and he spent three and a half years at Phillips Andover Academy in Boston, Massachusetts.

[5][6][7][8] His Naval Academy classmates included Morton Deyo, Harry W. Hill, George D. Murray, and John W.

[9] During World War I, Lieutenant Riefkohl served as Commander of the Armed Guard of the USS Philadelphia and on August 2, 1917, he was awarded the Navy Cross for engaging an enemy submarine.

He returned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City, after a naval tour which included the ports of Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

[8] From July 19, 1939 until April 4, 1941, Riefkohl served as War Plans Officer on the staff of the Commandant Fifteenth Naval District, Balboa, Canal Zone.

The Vincennes was among the cruiser escorts for Hornet and USS Enterprise which were involved with the Doolittle Raids on Tokyo and which later participated in the Battle of Midway.

The USS Vincennes belonged to Task Group 62.2, which screened the landings to the west of the assembled transports unloading on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

[6] Rear Admiral Riefkohl wrote in an epitaph: "The magnificent Vincennes, which we were all so proud of, and which I had the honor to command since April 23, 1941, rolled over and then sank at about 0250, August 9, 1942, about 2½ miles east of Savo Island ... Solomons Group, in some 500 fathoms of water.

[15] Rear Admiral Frederick Lois Riefkohl died in Brevard County, Florida in 1969, and was buried with full military honors in the United States Naval Academy Cemetery.