Navy christens newest destroyer

Posted 8:12AM on Monday 1st July 2002 ( 22 years ago )

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - The U.S. Navy on Saturday christened its newest guided missile destroyer for a black sailor who won the Navy Cross for rescuing a fellow crew member on the USS Enterprise in 1942. The late Navy cook 3rd class William Pinckney won the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during the Battle of Santa Cruz in 1942. Pinckney's widow, Henrietta Middleton Pinckney of Beaufort, S.C., broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the new ship's bow. Among ceremony participants at Northrup Grumann Ships Systems' Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula was be James Raymond Bagwell II, son of Petty Officer 2nd class James Raymond Bagwell, the crew member rescued by Pinckney. Bagwell said his father "called it a miracle" that Pinckney carried a heavier man up several decks to safety. "I believe my dad was blessed with a guardian angel and that angel was William Pinckney," Bagwell said. "If not for Mr. Pinckney, neither my sister, nor I , nor our children would be alive. It's truly amazing how someone we never met could have such a profound effect on our lives." According to Navy records, when an explosion killed four of the six men at his battle station in an ammunition handling room on the aircraft carrier, Pinckney and the other surviving sailor attempted to exit through a hatch to the hangar deck above. When the other man grasped the scorching hatch, he fell back unconscious. Despite the suffocating smoke, flames, and gasoline fumes surrounding him, Pinckney carried the sailor to safety. U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said the USS Pinckney will allow the Navy "to continue to do the work in fighting for freedom, ensuring that fear and terror will never prevail against liberty and freedom." The new destroyer is the 41st ship in the Arleigh Burke Class of Aegis guided missile destroyers and the 19th Aegis destroyer to be launched and christened at Ingalls.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/7/202068