French tied a line to himself and swam without rest, thus attempting to tow the raft. After the engagement, a group of about fifteen men were adrift on a raft, which was being deliberately shelled by Japanese naval forces. in May 1943.įor meritorious conduct in action while serving on board a destroyer transport which was badly damaged during the engagement with Japanese forces in the British Solomon Islands on September 5, 1942. In an interview with Chester Wright, author of the 2009 book “ Black Men and Blue Water,” Wright wrote “French’s shoulder shook, tears coursed down his cheeks, and all the author could get from him was, ‘Them white boys stood up for me.'” French’s Legacyįor his heroic action, French received a letter of commendation from Adm. The master at arms looked at the crew of the Gregory, still filthy, covered with oil and grime, and looking like “wildmen,” French later said, and backed down.Īs he spoke years after the incident, French was still overcome by emotion at the memory. “He is a member of the Gregory’s crew, and he damned well will stay right here with the rest of us.” At sunrise, they were spotted by scout aircraft who dispatched a craft to pick them up and return them safely behind American lines.įrench later recalled in an interview that once they were rescued, the master at arms at a rest camp tried to order him to stay in a segregated section with other Black troops.įrench’s white shipmates engaged in a nearly five-minute standoff with the master at arms and his subordinates, making it clear they weren’t going to let them take French away. “Just keep telling me if I’m goin’ the right way,” he said.įrench swam all night for eight hours and pulled the raft well out to sea. He stripped off his clothes, asked for help to tie a rope around his waist, and slipped into the water. When the men began to realize that the current was taking them toward a Japanese-held island, French volunteered to swim the raft away from shore.Įnsign Robert Adrian, who was on the bridge at the time of the attack, tried to talk French out of swimming by pointing to the dozens of sharks that had started loitering around the raft.įrench responded that he was a powerful swimmer and was less afraid of the sharks than he was of the Japanese. All were severely injured except one man: a Black mess attendant named Petty Officer First Class Charles Jackson French. Once in the water, fifteen crew members boarded a life raft. Then the Japanese began firing again, not at the sinking ships, but at the surviving crew in the water. Gregory’s skipper, himself seriously wounded, gave the order to abandon ship. Less than three minutes after the fatal flares had been dropped, she was dead in the water and beginning to sink. Gregory brought all her guns to bear but was completely overmatched. Gregory and Little, silhouetted against the blackness, were spotted immediately by the Japanese destroyers.