In September 1942, the USS Gregory was sunk by Japanese destroyers near Guadalcanal. During the night, Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French swam through the night in shark infested waters towing a raft of wounded sailors with a rope around his waist. French successfully brought the men to safety on the shores of the Solomon Islands. (Willie Kendrick/Navy Production Division)

On Sept. 5, 1942, the USS Gregory was sunk by Japanese destroyers near Guadalcanal.

Throughout the night and into the morning, Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French — a mess attendant who would thereafter be known as The Human Tugboat — completed a daring act of gallantry. He tied a rope around his waist and swam for hours, pulling a raft through treacherous waters to carry 15 sailors to safety on the Solomon Islands.

This legendary act of bravery by French, who was Black, never got its due at the time, in part because the military, and the Navy, remained segregated. Though recommended for the Navy Cross, he only received a letter of commendation from the commander of the Southern Pacific Fleet, Adm. William F. “Bull” Halsey.

French is at last getting some “long-overdue recognition,” Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro said Wednesday during the Surface Navy Association’s 36th National Symposium in Crystal City, Va.

“French gathered 15 shipmates onto a raft and, fearing they would drift to a Japanese-controlled island, towed the raft himself to a different island,” Del Toro said as he announced that a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will be named USS Charles J. French. “He swam for hours, pulling 15 souls from the jaws of the sea, defying the odds and the sharks with nothing but his own grit and compassion.”

French, who was 5-8 and weighed 195 pounds, was among the few uninjured sailors after the initial assault, and he found himself floating on a makeshift raft with wounded all around him, according a Navy account of the night.

Ensign Robert Adrian, with injuries in his legs and blast fragments in his eyes, regained consciousness in time to see French gathering injured shipmates to pile onto a raft. Adrian was among them. Later that year, Adrian told the story in a radio dramatization.

Though French, who died in 1956, was celebrated in Black media, his story has largely been lost to time.

Del Toro wants to change that.

That process began in May 2022, Del Toro said, when French received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal posthumously, and the surface rescue swimmer training pool at Naval Aviation Schools Command Swim Site San Diego was renamed in his honor.

In June 2022, President Joe Biden signed a law designating a U.S. Postal Service facility in Omaha, Neb., as the Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French Post Office.

“For too long, we did not recognize Petty Officer French appropriately, but we’ve begun to correct that,” Del Toro said.

Family members attend the Mess Attendant 1st Class Charles Jackson French pool dedication ceremony at the surface rescue swimmer training pool at Naval Aviation Schools Command Swim Site at Naval Base San Diego, May 21, 2022. (Sang Kim/U.S. Navy)