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Forgotten World War I hero honored by ship naming
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"I name thee United States Naval Ship Gunnery Sergeant Fred. W. Stockham," announced ship's sponsor Kitty Crenshaw, wife of U.S. Congressman Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla).
The July 6 ceremony at Blount Island Command, Jacksonville,
Fla., marked the official naming of the ship. USNS GYSGT Fred W. Stockham gleamed in a shiny coat of black paint and yards of red, white and blue bunting as it officially joined the Military Sealift Command fleet.
Stockham, the second of three maritime prepositioning force
enhanced ships, will join 14 other ships that comprise MSC's Maritime Prepositioning Force. The ships are specially configured to carry supplies for the U.S. Marine Corps. Stockham will operate out of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean where it will preposition Navy Mobile Construction Battalion equipment, fleet hospital
equipment, expeditionary airfield materials and a headquarters unit-support materiel.
The crowd of distinguished guests at the naming included Navy Vice Adm. Gordon S. Holder, commander, Military Sealift Command; Marine Lt. Gen. E.R. "Buck" Bedard, Deputy
Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations at Headquarters Marine Corps; and U.S Congressman Ander Crenshaw, whose wife Kitty is the ship's sponsor and whose daughters Sarah and Alex are maids of honor.
The ship is named in honor of American hero and Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient Gunnery Sgt. Fred W. Stockham.
Stockham received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his courageous actions in World War I, on the night of June 13 in Bois-de-Belleau - Belleau Woods -- France.
Fighting in the confusion and darkness of the French forest, Stockham and his fellow Marines were bombarded with artillery fire and deadly mustard gas.
"No man has ever displayed greater heroism or courage and showed more utter contempt of personal danger," wrote Stockham's company commander, 2nd Lt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC, in his recommendation to award Gunnery Sgt. Stockham the Medal of Honor. "His bravery was an inspiration to his men, and his actions undoubtedly saved the lives of many of his wounded comrades."
Cates' recommendation was somehow lost, and the war came to a close with the brave gunny buried in France, his legacy seemingly forgotten.
It wasn't until the late 1930s that Cates, who would become
Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1948, and Barret Mattingly, the young man Stockham saved, realized that the Medal of Honor had never been awarded.
On Dec. 21, 1939, the Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously to Gunnery Sgt. Fred W. Stockham by direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Military Sealift Command is the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense. The Navy command operates more than 110 active ships around the world. Ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea to at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies. (FROM MILITARY SEALIFT COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
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