The Patriot Post® · Profiles of Valor: LTJG Albert David (USN)
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Albert David was a native son of Maryville, Missouri. Not much is known of his early life.
In September 1919, after World War I ended, Albert enlisted in the Navy at age 17. He completed Basic Training at Naval Training Station, San Francisco, and then received orders to serve aboard the battleship USS Arkansas. He served in the Navy for the next two decades, deploying on nine different ships.
In August 1939, he was placed in the Fleet Reserve but was recalled to active duty a month later at the onset of World War II when Germany invaded Poland.
For the next three years, he served at several domestic ship repair and outfitting bases, including a Machinist position at the Submarine Repair Unit in San Diego. In May 1943, then-Ensign David was ordered to Orange, Texas, to help prepare and then serve on the destroyer USS Pillsbury, which was assigned to escort Atlantic Ocean convoys to Casablanca, Morocco, and Gibraltar.
On 4 June 1944, the USS Pillsbury was part of the USS Guadalcanal’s “hunter-killer” task force escorting convoys off Cape Blanco in French West Africa, when the German Submarine U-505 was located about 150 miles off the coast. U-505 had already sunk eight Allied ships. One of the task force ships deployed depth-charges, which jammed the 505’s rudder and disabled its secondary rudder controls. As some of its compartments began to flood, U-505 was forced to surface.
Once surfaced, the sub’s commander ordered his men to abandon ship after setting demolition charges to scuttle it. All but one of U-505’s men were recovered and taken aboard the Pillsbury.
At the same time, David led a team of nine Pillsbury crewmen down through the 505’s conning tower hatch into the flooding sub, knowing the scuttling charges could detonate at any moment. His crew closed the opened valves to stop the flooding and disarmed the demolition charges. They then shut down the sub’s diesel engines to stop it from moving. Their actions ensured that the U-505 remained seaworthy, allowing it to be hauled to the U.S.
They gathered all the intel they could from the sub, including charts, codebooks, classified materials, and an Enigma decoding machine. It was determined, on further inspection, that, in addition to all the intel David’s men had recovered, the 505 had the latest radar technology, torpedoes, radio-code technology, and other advanced systems. The Dod record notes, “The confiscated materials also allowed the Allies to continue decoding German submarine radio messages in real-time, which led to greater successes in the European theater.”
The success of the Pillsbury mission and David’s daunting courage led not only to his promotion to Lieutenant but also to his recommendation for the Medal of Honor.
As his citation notes:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty [David took] a vigorous part in the skillfully coordinated attack on the German U-505, which climaxed a prolonged search by the Task Group, (then LT. JG) David boldly led a party from the Pillsbury in boarding the hostile submarine as it circled erratically at five or six knots on the surface. Fully aware that the U-boat might momentarily sink or be blown up by exploding demolition and scuttling charges, he braved the added danger of enemy gunfire to plunge through the conning tower hatch and, with his small party, exerted every effort to keep the ship afloat and to assist the succeeding and more fully equipped salvage parties in making the U-505 seaworthy for the long tow across the Atlantic to a U.S. port. By his valiant service during the first successful boarding and capture of an enemy man-o-war on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since 1815, Lt. David contributed materially to the effectiveness of our Battle of the Atlantic and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
Unfortunately, David died of a heart condition on 17 September 1945, six weeks before his Medal of Honor ceremony. On 9 November, his wife Lynda Mae David accepted the award on behalf of her late husband from Vice Adm. A.S. Carpender.
David was buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego.
In 1968, the USS Albert David (FF-1050), a destroyer escort later reclassified as a frigate, was commissioned in David’s honor, and it remained active in the fleet for more than 30 years.
The U-505 was restored and is now on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, along with David’s Medal of Honor. The German sub was designated a National Historic Landmark and is one of only two Type IXC U-boats in existence.
LTJG Albert David: An ordinary man faced with extraordinary circumstances, he summoned the greatest measure of courage to place his life in imminent peril to save others. Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty — is eternal. Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, and for our nation’s Veterans, First Responders, and their families.
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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