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The Following is from:
http://www.goldsea.com/Personalities/Heroes/heroes2.html
Rear Admiral Gordon Paiea Chung-Hoon was honored for conspicuous gallantry
and extraordinary heroism as commander of the destroyer USS Sigsbee during two
battles in the spring of 1945.
During the spring of 1945 the Sigsbee helped shoot down 20 Japanese
fighters while screening a carrier strike force off Kyushu.
On April 14, 1945 the Sigsbee suffered a crippling kamikaze strike while on
radar picket duty off Okinawa. The destroyer's port engine and steering control
were disabled. Rather than order an evacuation, Chung-Hoon rallied his men to
maintain highly effective anti-aircraft fire while performing repairs to enable
the ship to limp to port.
Gordon P. Chung-Hoon was born fourth of five children on July 25, 1910 in
Honolulu, Hawaii. While a midshipman at the Naval Academy he played football on
the team that ended an 11-year drought against Army. Chung-Hoon graduated in
1934. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant Chung-Hoon
was attached to the USS Arizona. Chung-Hoon commanded the Sigsbee from May 1944
to October 1945. Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon retired from the Navy in 1959 and was
appointed by Hawaii's first elected governor to serve as director of the state
Department of Agriculture. Gordon P. Chung-Hoon died in July 1979.
An Aegis guided missile destroyer named in Chung-Hoon's honor was
commissioned on January 11, 2003. |
