Recently, a magazine writer named Bruce Wigo ran across French’s story by way of a reference to a vintage trading card by Gum, Inc. Card #129 was about a Black sailor who saved some 15 wounded shipmates by towing them on a raft for hours.
The man’s name was Charles Jackson French. He was 23 years old, an orphan from Arkansas who had learned to swim in the nearby Red River as a boy. He was a messman on the USS Gregory near Guadalcanal in September 1942 when the ship took fire from the Japanese navy and sank.
Fortunately, Wigo found French’s story in a 2009 book by Chester Wright called Black Men and Blue Water. Here is an excerpt from that book, in which Wright quotes from an interview he had with French after the war.
The language and punctuation are as quoted by Bruce Wigo, (except two g’s, which are replaced with **).
“When Gregory was hit by them planes a lot of us got off before she sunk and many of my friends wuz hurt. I was on a raft with some of them and we started drifting towards land. I knowed that if we got close enough them Japs would kill us. They, we had been told, would soon as kill a man already wounded as any body else.
“So, I being lucky enough to not get hurt jes put a line around my middle and started a paddling away from the beach. Then I got the hell scared outta me. I noticed they wuz sharks a circling around that raft a waitin for they dinner.
“So I thought what’s wurse them sharks or them Japs[? A]t least them sharks will be quick...So, I jest keep paddling. I nearly peed on myself when one of them sharks teched my feet. ... I guess them sharks decided to not have ‘scairt-ni**er’ for lunch.”
They were picked up by a friendly ship after 6-8 hours in the water.
Wright continues: “French, according to friends residing in San Diego, was claimed by alcoholism in later years....He was probably discharged with mental problems and left to fend for himself.”
French died in San Diego in 1956 at age 37. His wife died in 1968.
French received no more recognition than a letter of commendation from Admiral William Halsey. Wigo speculates that it was unacceptable to the Navy that a Black man should receive an equal or higher award than the posthumous silver star that was given to a White officer for his actions that day.
The illustration is from Gum, Inc.
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