Charles Walter David Jr. (June 20, 1917 – March 29, 1943), who served as a Steward's Mate in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

, died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

after rescuing other sailors from the frigid

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

. He was assigned to the USCGC ''Comanche'' during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, which was assigned to escort a convoy that included the , a troop transport, when it was torpedoed by a

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

off

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. David volunteered to dive into the frigid waters to rescue exhausted crew and passengers from the ''Dorchester''. David also rescued several other ''Comanche'' crew members, who grew exhausted. David came down with pneumonia after the exertion of the rescue, dying a few days later. He was posthumously awarded the

Navy and Marine Corps Medal The Navy and Marine Corps Medal is the highest non-combat Military awards of the United States Department of the Navy, decoration awarded for heroism by the United States Department of the Navy to members of the United States Navy and United State ...

. David's widow Kathleen and young son Neil received the award on his behalf.

USCGC ''Charles David Jr''

In 2010, when the Coast Guard decided that all the new

Sentinel class cutters The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as the Fast Response Cutter or FRC due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Deepwater program. At , it is similar to, but larger than, the lengthened 1980s-era s that it replaces. ...

would be named after Coast Guard personnel who had been recognized for their heroism, David was one of those to be honored. The seventh cutter in the class is named . She is the first Sentinel class cutter to be homeported in

Key West, Florida Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Islan ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:David, Charles Walter 1917 births 1943 deaths United States Coast Guard non-commissioned officers Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) United States Coast Guard personnel killed in World War II