John F. McCormick | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 12, 1901 |
| Died | April 2, 1986 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | sailor |
| Known for | his heroism was recognized by naming a USCG cutter after him |
John F. McCormick was a sailor in the United States Coast Guard who was recognized for his courage. [1] [2] [3] [4] McCormick was born in Portland, Oregon, and served much of his 26 year Coast Guard career in Oregon. After his 1947 retirement, he made his home in Garibaldi, Oregon; he lived there for another 39 years.
McCormick enlisted in 1921, and spent most of his career as a non-commissioned petty officer. [1] Late in his career he was promoted to the ranks of commissioned officers, and retired as a Lieutenant, in 1947.
In 1938 McCormick was the coxswain in charge of the motor lifeboat USCGC Triumph, at Point Adams Station, at the mouth of the Columbia River. [1] Large rivers, like the Columbia, have dangerous sandbars, where the fast-flowing fresh-water, full of silt, slows where it meets ocean water. In bad weather waves break on the sandbar, representing a serious navigational danger.
On March 26, 1938 McCormick took the Triumph to assist a tug trying to tow logs across the bar. [1] One of McCormick's crew fell overboard, and McCormick, exercising great skill, was able to lead his remaining crew in a rescue that won the admiration of his peers. The rescue earned McCormick the Congressional Gold Lifesaving Medal.
During World War II McCormick commanded Point Adams Station. [1] In 1947 he commanded Coast Guard Station Garibaldi.
McCormick received the Coast Guard Gold Lifesaving medal. [1] [4] [5]
In 2010, Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the Coast Guard's most senior non-commissioned officer, proposed that all 58 cutters in the Sentinel class should be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who were recognized for their heroism. [6] [7] [8] In 2014, the Coast Guard announced that the 21st cutter would be named the John F. McCormick [8] although in the event the middle initial was dropped from the ship's name. USCGC John McCormick was built in Lockport, Louisiana, at the Bollinger shipyards, and delivered to the Coast Guard on December 13, 2017. [1] [9] [10] She was commissioned in Ketchikan, Alaska, the first cutter of her class to transit the Panama Canal, and the first to be commissioned on the west coast. [11]
Isaac Mayo was a junior surfman in the United States Life-Saving Service, one of the agencies later amalgamated into the United States Coast Guard in 1915. On April 4, 1879, he led multiple and eventually successful efforts to rescue seamen stranded in an offshore wreck at the height of a violent storm.
Joseph Napier, a station keeper for the United States Life-Saving Service founded the lifesaving station at St. Joseph, Michigan in 1876. He operated the station for many years and was credited with many dangerous and heroic rescues.
Richard Dixon was the coxswain of a 44-foot Motor Lifeboat, on the July 4th weekend of 1980, when his skill and daring enabled him to rescue stricken pleasure boat crew off Tillamook Bay, Oregon. During the first incident a 58-foot yacht was in distress in the aftermath of hurricane Celia, and needed to seek sheltered waters, but wave conditions seemed likely to batter it apart if it tried to use the narrow entrance between two stone jetties to enter Tillamook Bay's harbor. Dixon and the coxswain of another motor lifeboat maneuvered beside the yacht, to absorb some of the wave energy as it entered harbor.
Benjamin Baxter Dailey was the keeper of several lifeboat stations for the United States Life-Saving Service—one of the precursor services to the United States Coast Guard.
USCGC Winslow Griesser (WPC-1116) was the sixteenth Sentinel-class cutter to be delivered. She is the fourth of six Sentinel-class vessels to be stationed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bollinger shipyards delivered her to the United States Coast Guard, in Key West, Florida, on December 23, 2015. After she completed her acceptance trials, she was commissioned on March 11, 2016.
Winslow W. Griesser (1856–1931) was a station keeper in the United States Life-Saving Service, one of the agencies that were merged to form the United States Coast Guard. In 2016 the Coast Guard honored him by naming one of its new Sentinel-class cutters, USCGC Winslow W. Griesser, after him.
Maurice David Jester was a member of the United States Coast Guard. Jester enlisted in the Coast Guard as a surfman in 1917. By 1936, he had risen to the rank of chief boatswain. In December 1941, after the United States entered World War II, Jester was given a lieutenant's commission, and he was given command of the USCGC Icarus (WPC-110).
USCGC Lawrence Lawson is the 20th Sentinel-class cutter to be delivered to the United States Coast Guard. She was built at Bollinger Shipyards, in Lockport, Louisiana, and delivered to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, on October 20, 2016. She was commissioned on March 18, 2017. She is the second cutter of her class to be the homeported at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, and also the second to be stationed outside of the Caribbean.
USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121) is the United States Coast Guard's 21st Sentinel-class cutter, and the first to be stationed in Alaska, where she is homeported at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan.
USCGC Bailey Barco (WPC-1122) is the United States Coast Guard's 22nd Sentinel-class cutter, and the second to be stationed in Alaska, where she was homeported at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan.
Bailey Taylor Barco was a stationkeeper and Captain with the United States Life-Saving Service—one of the agencies later merged into the United States Coast Guard. He led a rescue at his station in Virginia Beach, on December 21, 1900.
USCGC Benjamin Dailey (WPC-1123) was the United States Coast Guard's 23rd Sentinel-class cutter. She was the first cutter of her class stationed in the Coast Guard's Eight District, with a homeport in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
USCGC Joseph Doyle (WPC-1133) is the United States Coast Guard's 33rd Sentinel-class cutter. She was completed, and transferred to Coast Guard, in Key West, for her acceptance trials, on March 21, 2019. She was commissioned on June 8, 2019, and the first of a second cohort of cutters commissioned in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The first batch of six cutters were commissioned there in 2015 and 2016.
Angela McShan was a highly regarded Coast Guardsman in the United States Coast Guard. In 1999 McShan was the first African-American to be appointed an instructor at the Chief Petty Officers' Academy. In 2000 McShan was the Coast Guard's first African-American woman to be promoted to Master Chief Petty Officer.
William C. Hart was a sailor in the United States Coast Guard. He first enlisted on September 3, 1924, when he was 26 years old. He was promoted to Boatswain's mate and was in command of CG-213 when it effected a daring rescue of a stranded tugboat in November 1926. During this rescue Hart dived into dangerous seas to rescue a member of the tug's crew who had fallen overboard. According to his Coast Guard biography: "Hart jumped overboard and affected the rescue at great personal risk, as the two vessels were not more than 8 feet apart in the raging seas." For this act of heroism Hart was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. In 1927 his heroism in fighting a gasoline fire earned him a commendation.
USCGC Daniel Tarr (WPC-1136) is the United States Coast Guard's 36th Sentinel-class cutter, and the first of three to be homeported in Galveston, Texas.
USCGC William Sparling (WPC-1154) is the United States Coast Guard's 54th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Harold Miller (WPC-1138) is the United States Coast Guard's 38th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Glen Harris (WPC-1144) will be the United States Coast Guard's 44th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Edgar Culbertson (WPC-1137) is the United States Coast Guard's 37th Sentinel-class cutter, and the second of three to be homeported in Galveston, Texas.
Born and raised in Portland, he enlisted as a Surfman at the Barview Station in 1921 and served there until 1934. Then after two years at Coos Bay, he was transferred back to Northwest Oregon.
The fast response cutters are being named after Coast Guard heroes. FRC John McCormick was named after Boatswain John McCormick, who received a Gold Lifesaving Medal on March 26, 1938, when he rescued Surfman Robert Bracken.
The cutter is named after a former officer-in-charge of the wooden 52-foot motor lifeboat Triumph out of Station Point Adams. McCormick was awarded the Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal for maneuvering the Triumph against a strong current and into the breakers to pick up a crewman who fell overboard on March 26, 1938.
McCormick, acting with exceptional skill, maneuvered Triumph against the strong current, into the breakers and picked up the drowning man.
In making the rescue, Triumph was carried broadside on the face of a wave a distance of approximately 50 yards. The masts had been completely submerged, then the boat righted itself.
After the passing of several well-known Coast Guard heroes last year, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles "Skip" Bowen mentioned in his blog that the Coast Guard does not do enough to honor its fallen heroes.
Previously designated to be named the Coast Guard Cutter Sentinel, the cutter Bernard C. Webber will be the first of the service's new 153-foot patrol cutters. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen approved the change of the cutter's name to allow this class of vessels to be named after outstanding enlisted members who demonstrated exceptional heroism in the line of duty. This will be the first class of cutters to be named exclusively for enlisted members of the Coast Guard and its predecessor services.
All of these boats will be named after enlisted Coast Guard heroes, who distinguished themselves in USCG or military service. The first 25 have been named, but only 8 have been commissioned...
This vessel is named after McCormick, awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal on Nov. 7, 1938, for his heroic action in rescuing a fellow Coast Guardsman in treacherous conditions where the mouth of the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean in northwest Oregon.
When one of the crossing boat's barges drifted into the outer break, McCormick and his crew moved in to assist. As he did this, Triumph was hit by one of the river's infamously formidable waves; Triumph's masts were fully submerged. Robert O. Bracken, one of Triumph's surfman, was thrown overboard.