Today is Memorial Day here in the United States. Often the true meaning of this holiday is overlooked and treated as nothing more than a three day weekend. Memorial Day is a day that we should take time to honor those men and women who died to bring us the freedom that we enjoy today. Here is just one example
Samuel B. Roberts
Samuel Booker Roberts, Jr. (12 May 1921 – 27 September 1942) was a U.S. Navy coxswain who was killed in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and became the namesake of three U.S. Navy warships.
Roberts was born in San Francisco, California, on May 12, 1921. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1939 and was called to active duty in 1940. Roberts served aboard the USS California (BB-44) and the transport USS Heywood (AP-12), before being transferred to the troop transport USS Bellatrix (AK-20, later AKA-20).[1]
In 1942, Bellatrix was assigned to Task Group Four and became part of the Guadalcanal Assault Force. As a coxswain for the Bellatrix’s assault boats, Roberts helped ferry supplies from the transport ships to a tenuous beachhead.[1]
After the ships withdrew in the face of Japanese attacks that began 7 August 1942, Roberts volunteered for duty on the island of Guadalcanal, where he was attached to a Beachmaster unit at Lunga Point. The unit, which included Navy and United States Coast Guard sailors, transported Marines and their supplies to beaches along the island’s northern coast, and also evacuated wounded Marines.[1]
Early on the morning of 27 September 1942, Roberts volunteered for a rescue mission to save a company-size unit of Marines that had been surrounded by a larger Japanese force. The rescue group of several Higgins boats was taken under heavy fire and was perilously close to failure. Roberts volunteered to distract Japanese forces by guiding his boat directly in front of their lines, drawing their fire. This decoy act was performed effectively until all Marines had been evacuated. However, as he was about to withdraw from the range of the Japanese guns, Roberts’ boat was hit and he was mortally wounded. His boatmates brought him back to base and he was flown out on a medical evacuation flight, but died the next day.[1]
Roberts was awarded the Navy Cross for his valor in the face of enemy fire. But the unique history of the name Samuel B. Roberts did not end there.
Shortly after his death the Navy named a newly commissioned destroyer for Samuel B. Roberts. Although sank shortly into her service she became known as “the destroyer that fought like a battleshipâ€.
This was the first ship to be named USS Samuel B. Roberts
USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy.
Samuel B. Roberts was part of the Battle off Samar, an unlikely victory in which relatively-light U.S. warships prevented a superior Japanese force from attacking the amphibious invasion fleet off the large Philippine island of Leyte. This destroyer escort, along with the handful of destroyers, destroyer escorts, and escort carriers of the unit called "Taffy 3", was inadvertently left alone to fend off a fleet of heavily-armed Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers in this crucial action off the Island of Samar, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf of October 1944. Steaming aggressively through a gauntlet of incoming shells,Samuel B. Roberts scored one torpedo hit and numerous gunfire hits as she slugged it out with larger enemy warships before finally being sunk. After the battle, Samuel B. Roberts received the nickname "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship."[2]
Source and more information on the battle.
Just one year after the first Samuel B. Roberts was sunk and struck from the Naval record a new keel was laid down to begin on another. The Second SammyB (as her crew came to call her) was the USS Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823) a gearing-class destroyer. This SammyB served with honor from 1947 to 1971.
For the next 15 years no ship carried the name of Samuel B. Roberts, that was until 1986. In that year the third Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) an Oliver Hazard Perry Class Destroyer was commissioned. In 1988 this SammyB survived a mine strike that would have been fatal to most vessels.
The frigate deployed from its home port in Newport, Rhode Island in January 1988, heading for the Persian Gulf to participate in Operation Earnest Will, the escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War. The Roberts had arrived in the Persian Gulf and was heading for a refueling rendezvous on April 14 when the ship struck an M-08 naval mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area it had safely transited a few days previously. The mine blew a 15-foot (5 m) hole in the hull, flooded the engine room, and knocked the two gas turbines from their mounts. The blast also broke the keel of the ship; such structural damage is almost always fatal to most vessels. The crew fought fire and flooding for five hours and saved the ship.
This SammyB is still in service today providing for the defense of the United States.
This entry is not just about what many describe to be a Hero Ship, its to stop and make you think about all the people that have served aboard her. A ship is nothing but a mass of metal, electronics, and engines. It is her crew that brings a ship to life and enables her to perform her magnificent feats. Over the course of three generations men and women have served aboard a shipped named Samuel B. Roberts to keep the United States safe from her enemies. Some made it home and some never did and gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Today is Memorial Day when we give honor and thanks to all those who have served this country and gave the ultimate sacrifice for our Freedom.
Thank you all for your service, we will not forget you this Memorial Day.