A training pool at Naval Base San Diego will be named in honor of a Black Omaha war hero who saved the lives of 15 shipmates during World War II, the Navy announced Friday.
Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French, a Navy mess steward, was on the USS Gregory during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. When the ship was sunk by Japanese forces, French was the only uninjured person accompanied by about 15 wounded shipmates. He loaded the injured men into a life raft.
Realizing that they were drifting toward danger, French, only 22 at the time, jumped into the shark-infested waters, tied a rope around his waist and pulled the raft while swimming for more than six hours in the dark until they were spotted by an aircraft and rescued.
“The story of Charles Jackson French needs to be told and shared for generations to come,” said Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations. “He exemplified our core values and faced adversity with unwavering grit and selflessness.”
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French was lauded as a hero by the public — his story prompting comics, radio dramas and a poem by a Pulitzer-Prize winner — but the Navy itself barely acknowledged his valor. Even though an officer on the raft recommended French for a Navy Cross, the military’s second-highest valor award, he received only a letter of commendation for his “meritorious conduct.”
Now, a movement is building to secure a posthumous award for French. Last May, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., wrote the acting Navy secretary asking for French’s service record to be reviewed to ensure that he was appropriately recognized.
Still, there has been no award. The dedication of the swimming pool — which is used to train Navy rescue swimmers who conduct search-and-rescue missions at sea — marks the first recognition of French from the Navy since his commendation in 1943.
“He exemplified the Navy’s values of honor, courage and commitment, and it is well past time that we recognize his actions in this way,” said Rear Adm. Stephen Barnett, the commander of Navy Region Southwest.
Last month, the U.S. House passed a bill, introduced by Bacon and other Nebraska representatives, to name the Benson post office after French. U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., has introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
“It will be a great part of the Omaha legacy and future if we can do it,” Bacon said of the post office during a February legislative update.
French has connections to San Diego beyond the naval base. After the war, he settled in the city with his wife and daughter. Upon his death in 1956, he was buried in San Diego at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
A formal dedication ceremony for the training pool will be held in May.
Photos: World War II hero Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French
The International Swimming Hall of Fame had this painting created of French, one of the most famous African American heroes of World War II. USA Swimming honored him at the finals of the 2021 Swim Trials in June.
Charles Jackson French with his sister, Viola, at a Creighton University football game on Oct. 31, 1942, at which he was honored. French towed a raft loaded with his wounded shipmates through shark-infested waters to safety near Guadalcanal.
The story of Charles Jackson French’s World War II valor was told and retold, especially in Black newspapers. The Arkansas native had moved to Omaha to live with his sister as a youth after his parents died, and he became one of the most famous African-African war heroes of the 1940s.
A 1943 “True Comics” account of the valor of Charles Jackson French after his ship was sunk at Guadalcanal.
Charles Jackson French and his sister, Viola, are honored at a Creighton football game in Omaha Oct. 31, 1942.
This cartoon by the African-American artist Charles Alston for the U.S. Office of War Information celebrates the wartime valor of Charles Jackson French and two other African American sailors, Doris “Dorrie” Miller and Ervin Bell. Miller received the Navy Cross (the second highest award for combat valor) and Bell received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (the highest award for non-combat heroism). French received no medal, only a letter of commendation.
French finished a four-year Navy tour in November 1941 and was visiting family in Omaha when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Within days, French, 22, reenlisted. He was a mess steward, one of the few positions Black sailors were then allowed to fill in the military.
Charles Jackson French (on stage, not pictured) led a crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance at the Omaha Auditorium Nov. 11, 1942, during the city’s largest Armistice Day observance since the end of World War I 24 years earlier.
Ensign Robert Adrian was fresh out of the Naval Academy and a junior officer on the Navy destroyer USS Gregory when it was sunk near Guadalcanal Sept. 5, 1942. Weeks later, he told the story of a heroic mess attendant named “French” who towed a raft full of about 15 wounded sailors — including Adrian — all night through shark-filled waters until they were rescued. He told the story frequently to family, and tried for the rest of his life to get Charles Jackson French, the mess attendant from Omaha, the valor award he was denied during the war. Adrian retired from the Navy in 1966 and died in 2011, without succeeding. He is shown here later in his career, as a lieutenant commander.
The story of Charles Jackson French’s valor was told in newspapers, on radio dramas, in comics, on a bubble gum card, and on this World War II calendar.
Charles Jackson French’s draft registration card.
Charles Jackson French was discharged from the Navy Nov. 13, 1941, but reenlisted a month later after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.