Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

George Francis Kosco (1 April 1908 – 11 June 1985) was a United States Navy aerologist and

polar explorer This list is for recognised pioneering explorers of the polar regions. It does not include subsequent travelers and expeditions. Polar explorers * Jameson Adams * Stian Aker * Valerian Albanov * Roald Amundsen * Salomon August Andrée * Piotr F ...

. Kosco was born in

Ramsaytown, Pennsylvania Ramsaytown is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Jefferson County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. History Ramsaytown was originally a mining community. A post office called Ramsaytown was establ ...

, on 1 April 1908. He was a Slovak American: his father had come from Oľšov, and his mother from

Plavnica Plavnica ( hu, Palonca) is a village and municipality in Stará Ľubovňa District in the Prešov Region of northern Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1325. Geography The municipality lies at an al ...

. His family name had been "Kvasnak", but this was changed to "Kosco" when his parents emigrated to the United States. Kosco graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1930, and earned a master's degree in weather aerology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. His dissertation, co-authored with John O. F. Dorsett, was called ''Winter weather types of the eastern North Pacific and adjacent coastal and island areas''. Kosco spent much of the 1930s hurricane hunting in the Caribbean. In 1939 he married Bernadette Howley (1912–2013); the couple had three children.

Bob Drury Bob Drury is an American writer and journalist. He has contributed to a variety of newspapers, magazines, and other publications. He is the author of over twelve non-fiction books. Currently, he resides in Manasquan, New Jersey. Early life and ed ...

and Tom Clavin describe him as a "handsome, athletic six-footer", while Buckner F. Melton Jr. calls him "a slightly stout moon-faced officer". Kosco was assigned to Admiral William Halsey Jr.'s Third Fleet in early October 1944. In December, the fleet was struck by Typhoon Cobra, which destroyed three ships. Kosco, aboard the USS ''New Jersey'', reported a "

tropical disturbance Tropical cyclones are ranked on one of five tropical cyclone intensity scales, according to their maximum sustained winds and which tropical cyclone basins they are located in. Only a few scales of classifications are used officially by the mete ...

" to the east, and moving away from the fleet, when in fact it was a full-blown typhoon away and coming towards the fleet. Kosco later admitted to a board of inquiry that he had underestimated Cobra's strength, "basing his prediction on historical data about regional storms rather than relying upon current local observations." He was "mildly reprimanded". In 1967, Kosco published an account of the incident coauthored with

Hans Christian Adamson Hans Christian Adamson (July 20, 1890 – September 11, 1968) was a Danish-born American writer, who, along with Eddie Rickenbacker, survived adrift for 24 days in the Pacific Ocean in 1942. Personal history Adamson was born in Varde, Denmark. ...

: ''Halsey's Typhoons: A Firsthand Account of How Two Typhoons, More Powerful than the Japanese, Dealt Death and Destruction to Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet''. Kosco was present at the

signing ceremony A signing ceremony is a ceremony in which a document of importance is signed (approved). Typically the document is a bill passed by a legislature, thus becoming a law by an executive's signature. However, the document may also be, for example, a ...

of the Japanese surrender on the USS ''Missouri'' at Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. He took what is believed to be the only color film footage of the ceremony. This was only released publicly in 2010. In 1946 Kosco participated in Operation Nanook in the Arctic. He was then chief aerologist and chief scientist in

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The opera ...

in the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr. in 1946–47. He also led several other polar expeditions, collecting specimens for the Smithsonian Institution.

Kosco Glacier Kosco Glacier () is a glacier about long, flowing from the Anderson Heights vicinity of the Bush Mountains of Antarctica northward to enter the Ross Ice Shelf between Wilson Portal and Mount Speed. It was discovered by the United States Antarct ...

in Antarctica was named in his honor in 1962. Kosco retired from the Navy in 1960. He died on 11 June 1985 at Bethesda Naval Hospital, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosco, George Francis 1908 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American naval officers American meteorologists American people of Slovak descent United States Naval Academy alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Navy captains Explorers of Antarctica Explorers of the Arctic Burials at Arlington National Cemetery People from Jefferson County, Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania American polar explorers