Meet The Black Sailor Who Saved 15 Injured Crewmates By Tugging Their Raft Through Shark-Infested Waters

When the USS Gregory sank in 1942, a mess corridor officer named Charles Jackson French dragged a raft entire of his wounded crewmates to safety by shark-infested waters.&#13

On a pitch-black night in 1942, the waters of the Pacific Ocean near Savo Island and Guadalcanal quickly lit up with gunfire. In minutes, two American ships on patrol were being sunk by Japanese destroyers. And as sharks circled underneath, and Japanese soldiers fired from all about, a Black mess officer named Charles Jackson French leaped into action.

French, a person of the only uninjured sailors, discarded his waterlogged clothes, tied a rope all around his waist, and commenced to swim. For six to eight hrs, he tugged a raft crammed with wounded sailors driving him, pulling them to protection.

But, though his heroic tale was afterwards created general public, Charles Jackson French obtained minimal recognition through his daily life. Rather of a medal, he was sent a letter of “commendation.” It was not till latest a long time — and extensive right after his demise at the age of 37 — that this Black WWII hero at last obtained his thanks.

‘I Want To Do My Part’

Born on Sept. 29, 1919, Charles Jackson French used his early decades in Foreman, Arkansas. At the time, Black and white pools ended up segregated, creating it complicated for Black people to discover possibilities to learn to swim. Swimming World Magazine speculates that French might have learned to swim by browsing the city’s stone quarries and the Pink River.

On the other hand he figured out to swim, French’s days in Foreman ended up numbered. Immediately after his mothers and fathers died, he left Arkansas and moved in with his married, more mature sister Viola in Omaha, Nebraska. And by the time he was 18, French made a decision to strike out on his have and enlist in the U.S. Navy

The Navy, like swimming pools across the nation, was strictly segregated. As a Black gentleman, French had virtually no other preference than to perform as a mess attendant. In that capability, the U.S. Navy Office environment Of Info reviews that French put in 4 many years the USS Houston, serving foods to the white sailors, cleansing their tables, and holding the mess hall spick and span.

French returned to Omaha when his deployment finished in November 1941, but he would not remain in Nebraska for extended. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, French promptly re-enlisted.

“I want to do my component, because I’m presently qualified and I can start appropriate away,” French said at the time.

He had invested his final tour cruising all around the Pacific. But this time, Charles Jackson French would see considerably additional action.

Charles Jackson French’s Heroism For the duration of WWII

Next his re-enlistment, Charles Jackson French was assigned to the USS Gregory as a Steward’s Mate 1st class. According to Swimming Globe Journal, French’s rank was elevated previously mentioned a mere mess mate, but he and others have been still derided in the Black push as “seagoing bellhops.”

Immediately after 6 months at sea, nonetheless, French would show that he was substantially much more than a bellhop — seagoing or otherwise.

Then, on Sept. 5, 1942, the USS Gregory and the USS Minimal were attacked by Japanese destroyers close to 1 a.m. although patrolling the waters near Savo Island and Guadalcanal. The U.S. Navy Office environment Of Data reports that the Gregory, outgunned, sank just after just three minutes. Its surviving adult males were being plunged into shark-infested waters as the Japanese fired on them.

But French leaped into action. The 23-yr-previous helped wounded sailors on to a makeshift raft and — when U.S. Navy Ensign Robert Adrian informed him that the recent would pull the raft towards a Japanese-occupied island — volunteered to leap in the h2o and pull the raft in the other direction.

Adrian instructed him it was impossible. French, in accordance to Adrian, replied: “Just continue to keep telling me if I’m goin’ the right way.”

He drop his waterlogged clothes, tied a rope about his waist, and started out to swim. For the next 6 to 8 hrs, French tirelessly swam as sharks got so near that they at times brushed from his legs. At dawn, an American scout lastly noticed him and the other individuals and despatched rescue.

But French’s ordeal did not conclusion there. As he afterwards recounted, as recorded by Chester Wright in Black Adult men and Blue Drinking water, French and other uninjured soldiers were taken to a relaxation camp by their rescuers, who wanted to individual French from the white sailors. To French’s shock, the sailors insisted that French keep with them as a fellow member of Gregory’s crew.

“Them white boys stood up for me,” French emotionally advised Wright.

The tale of Charles Jackson French’s heroism was later made community by Adrian, who explained it on a radio program called It Took place in the Company in October 1942, in accordance to Swimming Entire world Magazine. Adrian experienced by no means uncovered French’s entire identify — he and the some others only knew him as “French” — but he totally credited him for their rescue that working day.

“I can guarantee you that all the adult men on that raft are grateful to mess attendant French for his brave motion off Guadacanal that night time,” Adrian claimed.

The story was before long picked up by the nationwide information, and Charles Jackson French was determined by NBC. He was celebrated across the region, highlighted in a comedian strip, and lauded by the Black press.

Adrian “and other white Americans owe their Lives to a black person whom he determined as a ‘mess attendant named French,’” the Pittsburgh Courier, a Black newspaper, wrote immediately after French was discovered.

The newspaper continued: “Although Mess Attendant Charles Jackson French of Arkansas was not in a heroic occupation, he Built a heroic job out of it. He who had been appeared down on as a caste male, frozen in standing, abruptly was seemed up to as a SAVIOUR.”

Although rumors unfold that Charles Jackson French could be awarded the Navy Cross, he was given only a letter of commendation from Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., the then-commander of the Southern Pacific Fleet.

French may possibly have been denied the medal since a Silver Star was awarded to one of his superiors — and it was unparalleled to award a larger medal to a subordinate. But the Omaha Environment-Herald pointed out some decades later that potential president John F. Kennedy experienced been provided the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for a identical act of bravery.

Charles Jackson French, on the other hand, was slowly and gradually overlooked.

The Legacy Of Charles Jackson French

Soon after his service on the USS Gregory, Charles Jackson French didn’t rest on his laurels. He returned to his purpose in the mess on the USS Endicott and the USS Frankford, and witnessed D-Day and the invasion of southern France.

Soon after World War II finished, French light from the general public eye. Black Past experiences that he endured from alcoholism and depression, and handed absent on Nov. 7, 1956, in San Diego, California. He was only 37 a long time previous.

But considering the fact that then, there’s been a force to give this overlooked Entire world War II hero his thanks. In April 2021, a article about French from the Worldwide Swimming Corridor of Fame revived his story. And a calendar year afterwards, Rear Admiral Charles Brown, the Navy general public affairs officer, introduced eight of French’s family members with a posthumous Navy and Maritime Corps Medal — just like Kennedy’s.

“It will inspire generations of sailors,” Brown stated at the medal ceremony, noted by the Omaha Globe-Herald. “It’s a story of the finest of who we are.”

French has been honored in other techniques, as well. A teaching pool at Naval Foundation San Diego was named just after French, and a submit workplace in his hometown of Omaha also bears his name.

In lifetime, French was not honored like he deserved. Wright notes that his loss of life didn’t advantage even “two paragraphs” in the San Diego press when he died in 1937. But at last, following 6 many years, his heroic functions all through Planet War II are lastly staying identified and rewarded.

“I’ve constantly felt happy to be a very pleased American,” his nephew, Roscoe Harris, explained to the Omaha Environment-Herald, just after attending his uncle’s medal ceremony. The 89-12 months-old additional: “I was delighted to see that, as an American Black man, (French) bought recognized.”

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Just after studying about Charles Jackson French, explore the tale of Doris Miller, a Black ship’s cook who turned a naval hero through the assault on Pearl Harbor. Or, find the overlooked tales of some of America’s most spectacular Black war heroes.