This week, the U.S. Navy is celebrating 240 years of active service. To commemorate the fleet’s enduring moto, non sibi sed patriae — “Not for Self but for Country” — we present five of the most exemplary warships to ever fly the Stars and Stripes.
1. USS Johnston (DD-557)
The Johnston, a Fletcher-class destroyer, was a small ship (weighing in at only 2,700 tons) but she packed a punch. During the ferocious action off Samar Island in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Johnston, along with two other American destroyers, charged a powerful Japanese force of four battleships and six heavy cruisers attempting to shell the American landing beaches and a task force of carriers. In a desperate ploy to keep the Japanese away from the invasion beaches, the Johnston, captained by an irascible Indian from Pawnee, Okla., Commander Ernest J. Evans, ordered his ship to boldly attack their superior foe. The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships describes the battle:
The destroyer’s 5-inch guns could not yet reach [the Japanese warships]. She charged onward to close [with] the enemy — first a line of seven destroyers; next, one light and three heavy cruisers, then the four battleships. To the east appeared three other cruisers and several destroyers.
As the ship was hit by a total of six torpedoes, sinking, and burning heavily, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion led the defense from the bridge, though mortally wounded. Bennion was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for “his conspicuous devotion to duty, extraordinary courage, and complete disregard of his own life.”
But the West Virginia would have her revenge. Refloated in May 1942, the West Virginia rejoined the fleet after extensive repairs in time for the invasion of the Philippines in October 1944. Too slow to serve with the modern fleet of fast carriers, the West Virginia was intended to be used primarily for shore bombardment, but the Japanese navy’s surprise attack through the Surigao Strait forced the old battleship into an old-school fleet action.
In a sharp fight against a task force of cruisers and battleships under Japanese Admiral Nishimura, the West Virginia protected the invasion beaches and took part in the last naval engagement between line-of-battle ships in War World II.
After shelling Japanese positions on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where she took a direct hit from a kamikaze, the West Virginia sailed into Tokyo Bay on the last day of August 1945 to take part in the formal Japanese surrender ceremonies. The “Wee Vee” went from sunk-in-action to victory in 44 months.
— Mark Antonio Wright is an assistant editor at National Review.