52 Photos Week 14: Profession
This is my 14th week of participating.
The man on the left is my Uncle Donnie. He was a Veteran of the U.S. Navy as a submariner during the Korean War.
He was on the USS Hobson (DD-464/DMS-26) a Gleaves class destroyer. The Hobson cost $5 million and was launched on 8 Sept 1941, and was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Richard Pearson Hobson. Richard Hobson was awarded the medal of honor for actions during the Spanish-American War. He would later in his career attain the rank of rear admiral and go on to serve as a congressman for the state of Alabama.
With the out beak of the Korean conflict in June 1950, Hobson's schedule of training intensified. She took part in amphibious exercises off North Carolina and in Puerto Rico 1950-51, and took part in carrier operations as a plance guard and screening ship.
During one such operation, with Carrier Wasp, Hobson was steaming in formation 700 miles west of the Azores on the night of 26 April 1952. While the ships turned into the wind so that Wasp could recover aircraft, Hobson crossed the carrier's bow from starboard to port and was struck amidships.
The force of the collison rolled the destroyer-minesweeper over, breaking her in two. Rodman and Wasp rescued many survivors, but the ship and 176 of her crew were lost, including her Commanding Officer, Lt. Comdr. W.J. Tierney.
It caused the greatest loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since WW II. Thus ended in tragedy the long career of a gallant ship.
Hobson received six battle stars for World War II service, and shared in the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the ships in the Bogue antisubmarine task group in the Atlantic.