World War II Victoria Cross Recipient. He was honored for a 1945 action with the 2nd./4th. Battalion of the Australian Infantry. Raised in Hamilton, Victoria, he left school at 14, and was working as a plumber at the onset of war. Kenna joined the Citizen Military Forces, roughly the equivalent of the US Army National Guard, on August 9, 1940. In early 1940 he joined the 23rd/21st Battalion, and in December of that year the Citizen Military Forces were activated for the duration of the war. The 23rd/21st Battalion linked with the 19th Brigade at Darwin in May of 1942 and the next month Kenna joined the Australian Imperial Forces, though he remained with his unit until it disbanded in August 1943, at which time he joined the 2nd/4th Battalion. He was serving as a private on May 15, 1945, at Wewak on the northern coast of the Australian Mandated Territory of New Guinea. Japanese machine gunners were entrenched at the Wirui Mission; to provide covering fire as his platoon prepared to attack, Kenna, alone and without orders, stood in full view 50 yards from the bunkers firing from the hip with a Bren gun; untouched by enemy rounds, he remained completely exposed until his unit captured the position. His actions led to the killing of numerous Japanese and the capture of several automatic weapons and, for his bravery in the face of concentrated fire, earned him the Victoria Cross. Severely wounded three weeks later, he made a full recovery, married a nurse that had cared for him, and was discharged in 1946. Kenna was awarded the Victoria Cross by the Duke of Gloucester, Governor General of Australia, at Government House in Melbourne on January 6, 1947. He played Australian rules football for a time, later worked at the Borough Hall in Hamilton, and was curator of Melville Oval. Mr. Kenna was honored on an Australian postage stamp in July, 2000. One commentator said of him that he spent a few minutes earning the Victoria Cross and the rest of his life living up to it.