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ML_pinckney_bkp.htm
| Cook
3rd Class William Pinckney |
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| A Japanese bomb explodes off the port
side of USS Enterprise (CV-6) during the action at the Battle
of the Santa Cruz Islands, Oct. 26, 1942. (Courtesy U.S. Navy/National
Archives) |
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Ship's Name Will Honor Heroism Of One Shipmate
Who Saved Another
By J.D. Kitson
Special to Military.com
The explosion that rocked the ammunition handling room of the aircraft
carrier Enterprise killed four men immediately. Outside the hull, the
Battle of Santa Cruz Islands raged on, part of the fierce Guadalcanal
campaign of 1942.
Inside, flames and suffocating smoke threatened the lives of William
Pinckney, an officers' cook from South Carolina, and the other surviving
sailor, a boatswain's mate. They tried to get out through a hatch to
the hangar deck, but gasoline fumes knocked out the boatswain's mate.
Summoning his strength, Beaufort native Pinckney carried his shipmate
to safety. For his heroism, he was eventually awarded the Navy Cross
-- the second African American to receive the honor.
He will soon receive a new, posthumous honor: becoming the namesake
for the Navy's newest guided-missile destroyer. In February 2000, then-Navy
Secretary Richard Danzig said the 41st Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile
destroyer will be christened the USS Pinckney (DDG 91). The ship, under
construction by Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Miss., is scheduled
to be commissioned in 2003.
"Last night, I was so excited I couldn't sleep," said Henrietta Pinckney,
80, upon learning of the decision. "I'm so proud of him. I just wish
they did it before he passed away." Pinckney died in 1975.
Pinckney's widow said her husband did not know the man he had saved
and never found out his name. "He risked his life to save someone else.
He didn't care about his own life," she said.
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