James Thomas O'Neal (1921 - 1944)
WWII Veteran
Following an attack on Pearl Harbor (1943), James O'Neal was the first African American to enlist in the US Navy from Pamlico County. He was assigned to training and duty at the Norfolk Va naval base. He was later assigned to sea duty aboard USN destroyer USS Warrington-283. On 10 September 1944, the Warrington departed Norfolk and set her course for Trinidad. Two days out of Norfolk, along the Florida coast, the ships encountered heavy weather. In the afternoon, the Warrington received word that she was steaming directly into a hurricane. Later that evening, the storm forced the destroyer to change course and return to Norfolk. Keeping wind and sea on her port bow, the Warrington rode relatively well through most of the night. Wind and seas, however, continued to build during the early morning hours of the 13th. The ship began to lose headway and, as a result, started to take in water through the vents to her engineering spaces. The water rushing into her vents caused a loss of electrical power which set off a chain reaction. Her main engines lost power, and her steering engine and mechanism went out. She wallowed there in the trough of the swells, continuing to take on water. She regained headway briefly and turned upwind, while her radiomen desperately, but fruitlessly, tried to raise the lead ship Hyades. Finally, she resorted to a plain-language distress call to any ship or shore station. By noon on the 13th, it was apparent that the Warrington's crewmen could not win the struggle to save their ship, and the order went out to prepare to abandon ship. By 12:50, PM her crew had left the ship; and she went down almost immediately. A prolonged search by the navy rescued only five officers and 68 men of the destroyer's 20 officers and 301 men. His family received a letter from the Department Navy informing them of his death. Additionally, the family receive a personal letter from the President Franklin D Rossevelt expressing a thank you from a grateful nation for his sacrifice to the country. He is honored with a plaque on the courthouse grounds in Bayboro NC, the county seat.
USS Warrington-383.
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