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Pictured here are some of the Coast Guard rescue crew who participated in the rescue of 165 men off the stricken U. S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. Turner off Sandy Hook (NJ) in 1943.

Under the command of Lt. Commander George F. Morin of the Sandy Hook (NJ) Coast Guard Station, Coast Guard cutters and patrol boats brought away 110 men from a flaming death just five minutes before the destroyer slid beneath the water.

One Coast Guard cutter, skippered by Ensign Peter Chase lashed itself to the sinking Navy destroyer. While ammunition explosions shattered the night and fire swept over the decks the Coast Guard crew rescued man after man and in the driving sleet searched for every possible person. Ray Pincetl, C.M.M. the last man off the sinking destroyer said, “During the fire 40-mm shells were popping all over. All the ammunition on board was on fire. Five minutes after I set foot on the Coast Guard cutter, the Turner went under.”

All the stories of the survivors were similar, all praising the Coast Guard. E. P. Norman, B.M.1c said, “There was a man in the water on the port side. The Coast Guard was trying to pick the man up . . . there was an explosion of a powder keg or something and the fire went all over the Coast Guard ship.”

A Coast Guard helicopter, piloted by Commander Frank A. Erickson, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Aviation unit at Floyd Bennett Field, gave limitless assistance to the medical care of the burned and injured by delivering two cases of blood plasma in an epoch-making flight.

This was the first time a helicopter was used in such an emergency. It would have taken a boat an hour and a car about an hour and a half to make it from Battery to Sandy Hook, in what took the helicopter 14 minutes. All other aircraft were grounded because of the severe storm. When the helicopter made its descent in front of the Sandy Hook Coast Guard station, a Coast Guard ambulance was waiting and rushed one carton of the life saving plasma to the hospital a mile and a quarter away and the other was rushed by Red Cross Director Cal Avery to other points of assistance.

All in all, 165 men were rescued, and 110 of them were rescued by the United States Coast Guard.

This story appeared in the October 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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