Charles Walter David Jr.
*Charles Walter David Jr. was born on this date in 1917. He was a Black sailor.
David served as a Steward's Mate in the United States Coast Guard and died of pneumonia after rescuing other sailors from the frigid North Atlantic. He was assigned to the USCGC Comanche during World War II, where he was assigned to escort a convoy that included the Dorchester, a troop transport when a U-boat off Greenland torpedoed it.
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, on March 29, 1943. He was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
In 2010, when the Coast Guard decided that all the new Sentinel-class cutters would be named after Coast Guard personnel recognized for their heroism, David was one of those to be honored. The seventh cutter in the class is USCGC Charles David Jr. She is the first Sentinel-class cutter homeported in Key West, Florida.
