Valor Friday

Mason | December 20, 2024 | 12 Comments

Charles Walter David Jr

It’s not often we discuss the heroism of US Coast Guardsmen. We’ve talked about Douglas Munro before as but one example. Steward Mate First Class Charles Walter David Jr (pictured) is one worth remembering. During WWII, while his ship was attempting to rescue survivors of the torpedoed SS Dorchester in the freezing North Atlantic, he volunteered to go into the frigid waters to rescue those who couldn’t get aboard due to the high seas and cold temperatures. He helped save nearly 100 men, but succumbed to pneumonia from the ordeal. He posthumously received the highest non-combat award for bravery, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (since the Coast Guard was under the Department of the Navy during the war).

His award citation;

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (Posthumously) to Stewards Mate First Class Charles Walter David, Jr., United States Coast Guard, for heroic and courageous conduct in effecting the rescue of survivors from the torpedoed S.S. DORCHESTER on 3 February 1943. When the benumbed survivors of S.S. DORCHESTER were unable, because of heavy seas and freezing winds, to make any efforts to climb on board the rescue ship, Steward’s Mate First Class David volunteered for the dangerous task of going over side and working in rough freezing water in order to assist the exhausted and helpless survivors in reaching the safety of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter U.S.S. COMANCHE. In spite of strong, sub-freezing wind and rough, near-freezing seas, he disregarded all discomforts and danger and worked with complete disregard of his own safety until he and fellow volunteers had rescued a total of 93 survivors from certain death in steadily mounting seas. The bravery, determination and disregard for his own safety displayed by Stewards Mate First Class David in assisting in the rescue of almost 100 helpless survivors were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

If you’d like to read more about this amazing young man, the National World War II Museum has a tremendous article about him;

Charles Walter David Jr. was born on June 20, 1917 in New York, New York. Little is known about his childhood, but as an African American man, he would have had few economic opportunities. In March 1941, he decided to enlist in the US Coast Guard despite having a wife and three-year-old son. In the segregated American military, David was assigned to do menial work in ship kitchens. Nevertheless, he labored diligently and was promoted to mess attendant first class.

After the United States entered World War II, David was assigned to the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Comanche. Aboard the Comanche, David was responsible for maintaining officers’ quarters, but in his off-duty hours he entertained the crew by playing his harmonica.

At 12:55 a.m. on February 3, 1943, the Comanche and three other cutters were escorting three transport ships carrying US troops and civilian contractors from the United States to Greenland. Off the coast of Greenland, the German submarine U-233 torpedoed the USAT Dorchester, which was carrying more than 900 men. The Dorchester rapidly began sinking and panic spread among the soldiers aboard. Hundreds were forced to jump into the frigid ocean because not all the lifeboats could be launched in time. Aboard the Dorchester, four Army chaplains—Methodist minister the Reverend George L. Fox, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Catholic priest Father John P. Washington, and Reformed Church in America minister the Reverend Clark V. Poling—guided soldiers trapped below deck to escape hatches. The chaplains passed out life vests and when the supply ran out, they gave their own life vests to men who had none. When the chaplains had done all they could, they linked arms to pray and sing hymns as the Dorchester slipped beneath the waves, less than 20 minutes after the torpedo struck the former civilian ocean liner.

Sailors aboard the other vessels in the convoy watched the tragedy unfold. The captain of the Comanche chose to ignore the obvious danger of another torpedo attack and maneuvered his ship to pick up survivors. Even so, hundreds of men from the Dorchester died within minutes from exposure in the cold water. The men aboard lifeboats faced a similar fate if they could not be quickly hauled aboard the Comanche. The Comanche’s crew lowered rope climbing nets to the lifeboats, but many of the Dorchester’s survivors were too weak from the cold to climb to safety. Ten foot waves also threatened to toss soldiers into the icy water if they slipped or if their lifeboats capsized.

Witnessing the crisis, David and several other men voluntarily climbed down into the lifeboats where they helped lift the shivering men up onto the Comanche’s deck. Even though David was one of the lowest ranking men on his ship and his own nation considered him a second-class citizen, he willingly put his life at risk to save his fellow Americans. During the precarious operation, the Comanche’s executive officer, Lieutenant Langford Anderson, fell overboard. Without hesitation, David dived into the deadly waters to save Anderson. David then helped lift a second shipmate, David Swanson, back onto the Comanche when Swanson had grown too weak from helping other men. Swanson recalled that David was a “tower of strength” who shouted encouragement to his fellow sailors during the harrowing ordeal. In addition to the two men whom David single-handedly saved, he and his shipmates successfully rescued 93 survivors from the Dorchester.

Although the Comanche and other ships rescued a total of 230 men from the Dorchester, nearly 700 others lost their lives. Shortly after David’s heroics, he contracted pneumonia from his time in the water. Fifty-four days later, on March 23, 1943, he succumbed to the illness in a hospital in Greenland. His crewmates did not learn of his death until weeks later. The Coast Guard posthumously awarded David the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. David’s widow and young son received the medal from Rear Admiral Stanley V. Parker and Lieutenant Anderson, the man David had pulled to safety. In 2010, the US Coast Guard named a Sentinel Class cutter in David’s honor.