Black sailor braved sharks, bombs to save 15 men in WWII. Vets push Navy to honor him
.png "Charles Jackson French rescued 15 fellow sailors after their ship was sunk by Japanese forces during WWII.")
Eight decades after saving 15 shipmates adrift and under fire in the Pacific Ocean, some veterans are pushing the Navy to recognize Charles Jackson French, a hero they say deserves more recognition than he was ever given.
French, a Black man from Foreman, Arkansas, worked as a mess attendant on a destroyer transport ship named the USS Gregory, according to a 1943 Associated Press article. When bombs sank the Gregory near the Solomon Islands during a battle with Japanese forces on Sept. 5, 1942, French was lucky enough to make it aboard a lifeboat. But neither he nor his fellow sailors were safe, just a smaller target than before.
“After the engagement, a group of about 15 men were adrift on a raft which was being deliberately shelled by Japanese naval forces,” Adm William Halsey Jr. told the Associated Press.
To get the men to safety, French tied one end of a rope to the raft and the other around his waist, jumped into the shark-infested waters and swam for hours without stopping.
“His conduct was in keeping with the highest traditions of the naval service,” Halsey said.
French was awarded a commendation and “became nationally known as the ‘Human Tugboat,’” Military.com reported. His face was put on war gum trading cards, and he appeared in syndicated comic strips, the Washington Informer reported, and Black newspaper the Chicago Defender dubbed him Hero of the Year.
French’s story recently resurfaced thanks to a Twitter post retweeted by Navy veteran and author Malcolm Nance on Saturday, with Nance questioning why French wasn’t considered for higher commendations.
“WW2 BLACK SAILOR GETS JUST THE NAVY-MARINE CORPS MEDAL FOR SAVING 15 MEN AFTER BEING SUNK IN A COMBAT ACTION!?” Nance wrote, tagging several official Navy accounts.
The Navy’s chief of information, Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, responded the next day.
“Thanks for highlighting this heroic story, Senior,” Brown tweeted, promising to speak with chief of naval operations Adm. Michael Gilday to “look into whether we can do more to recognize Petty Officer French.”
Several veterans told Newsweek it’s not surprising a Black sailor like French wasn’t given the recognition they earned.
“Too often in our past, service members of color were overlooked despite their fidelity and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds,” Naveed Shah, a U.S. Army veteran, told the outlet.
Lt. Cmdr. Ernest Morales III believes French deserves the Medal of Honor, the highest American military honor: “There’s no time like the present to correct the errors of yesterday’s thoughts. French performed valiantly on September 5, 1942 disregarding his own personal safety to help save the lives of 15 wounded shipmates.”
In 1956, French died in San Diego at age 37, outlets report.
He struggled with alcoholism as he got older, and his memories of war weighed heavily on him, author Chester Wright wrote in his book “Black Men and Blue Water,” Military.com reported.
“From close questioning of friends, it would appear that he returned from the Pacific Wars ‘stressed out’ from seeing too much death and destruction,” Wright wrote.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Black sailor braved sharks, bombs to save 15 men in WWII. Vets push Navy to honor him."