USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) History behind the name.

USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) collides with Philippine merchant ship 17 June 2017.
YOKOSUKA, Japan – The mother of a U.S. Navy sailor said her son kept diving to try to save his shipmates after a collision at sea until their flooded sleeping berth began running out of air pockets, while other survivors — believing their ship was under attack — hurried to man the guns.
Mia Sykes of Raleigh, North Carolina, told The Associated Press on Sunday that her 19-year-old son, Brayden Harden, was knocked out of his bunk by the impact, and water immediately began filling the berth, after their destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship four times its size off the Japanese coast.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet identified the deceased sailors as:
· Gunner’s Mate Seaman Dakota Kyle Rigsby, 19, from Palmyra, Va.
· Yeoman 3rd Class Shingo Alexander Douglass, 25, from San Diego, Calif.
· Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Conn.
· Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, 26, from Weslaco, Texas
· Fire Controlman 2nd Class Carlosvictor Ganzon Sibayan, 23, from Chula Vista, Calif.
· Personnel Specialist 1st Class Xavier Alec Martin, 24, from Halethorpe, Md.
· Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm Jr., 37, from Elyria, Ohio

 

William Charles Fitzgerald -- born on 28 January 1938 at Montpelier, Vt. -- the second child and first son of Louis and Mildred M. Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald graduated from Montpelier High School in June 1956, and followed in his father’s footsteps (his father had retired from the Navy as a chief petty officer) by enlisting in the Navy.
Fitzgerald served in destroyers Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823), Hugh Purvis (DD-709), and Gearing (DD-710), as well as with Utility Squadron 6 while working on the Gyrodyne QH-50 Drone Antisubmarine Helicopter (DASH) program at Naval Air Station Norfolk, Va. Seaman Fitzgerald then attained an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. He excelled as a leader while at the Naval Academy, and also as an athlete in softball, football, fencing, basketball, and tennis, graduating on 5 June 1963. Fitzgerald returned to the fleet and served in destroyer Charles H. Roan (DD-853), eventually becoming her Weapons Department Head. He married Betty A. Dalton of Montpelier on 18 April 1964, and their union produced three children: Neil W., Penni L., and Lynda K.
Fitzgerald completed counterinsurgency training at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, Calif., and then deployed to Coastal Group 16 in South Vietnam. The group established a base near the village of Co Luy, near the mouth of the Tra Khuc River, about 70 miles southeast of Da Nang, and monitored vessels smuggling troops and weapons to the People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF).
The PLAF launched a number of attacks on allied installations throughout August 1967, and they moved a force of more than battalion strength against Coastal Group 16’s base. At 0300 on 7 August they opened fire with an intense mortar barrage on the base. The group’s U.S. advisors – Lt. Fitzgerald, Lt. (j.g.) Anthony C. Williams, Chief Engineman Harold H. Gunn, and Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Leo E. Pearman -- radioed for support. A U.S. Navy inshore patrol craft, PCF-20, operated nearby and raced to the camp within 15 minutes, Fitzgerald directing the boat to fire on the enemy mortar and automatic weapons teams deployed across the river.
The PLAF resolutely pressed their attack, however, and despite PCF-20’s support penetrated the base’s northern mine defenses, killing South Vietnamese Lt. (j.g.) Nguyen N. Trong, VNN, the group’s commander, and many of his men. An assault group estimated at more than 100 men detached from their main force and overran the central section of the base, and Fitzgerald and his men shifted positions to their bunker and continued to fire at the attackers. Another patrol craft, PCF-75, reinforced the beleaguered garrison at 0340 and opened fire at the PLAF, joined five minutes later by South Vietnamese patrol escort PCE-10.


The enemy troops nonetheless surged over the defenders by 0345. Fitzgerald realized that the men in his bunker comprised the last organized pocket of resistance in the camp, and he ordered an artillery strike on his position while also directing his men to escape to the river. Fitzgerald valiantly remained behind to direct the artillery fire to cover his comrades’ withdrawal. He then attempted to join them but an enemy round struck Fitzgerald fatally in the back of his head as he reached the exit. Fragments wounded Williams in his face and chest and Gunn and Pearman sustained minor wounds, but all three reached the river. A fisherman rescued Williams and took him to a USA hospital at Qui Nhon, and a Coastal Group junk picked up the other two Americans, treated them for their wounds, and returned them to the base at 0430 because the PLAF filtered back into the jungle.
Additional vessels reached the area, including radar picket escort ship Camp (DER-251), patrol gunboat Gallup (PG-85), PCF-15, and PCF-54, while a USAF Douglas C-47 gunship circled overhead. Some of these vessels and the gunship blasted the enemy as they retired, and the boats evacuated 40 South Vietnamese troops to Camp, 15 suffering serious wounds and being subsequently flown by helicopter to a South Vietnamese hospital at Quang Ngai. Further reinforcements secured the base later that day. Fitzgerald received the Navy Cross and Purple Heart posthumously.