Navy To Christen New Guided-Missile Destroyer

Navy To Christen New Guided-Missile Destroyer

The Chung-Hoon, the Navy's newest Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer, will be christened Jan. 11, 2003, during a 10 a.m. CDT ceremony at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Miss.

The ship honors Navy Rear Adm. Gordon P. Chung-Hoon, born in Honolulu, July 10, 1910. Chung-Hoon attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in May 1934. He is a recipient of the Navy Cross and Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism as commanding officer for USS Sigsbee (DD 502) from May 1944 to October 1945. In the spring of 1945, the Sigsbee assisted in the destruction of 20 enemy planes while screening a carrier strike force off the Japanese island of Kyushu.

On April 14, 1945, while on radar picket station off Okinawa, a kamikaze crashed into the Sigsbee, reducing her starboard engine to five knots and knocking out the ship's port engine and steering control. Despite the damage, then Cmdr. Chung-Hoon valiantly kept his antiaircraft batteries delivering "prolonged and effective fire" against the continuing enemy air attack while simultaneously directing the damage control efforts that allowed his shipto make port under her own power. Chung-Hoon retired in October 1959 and died in July 1979.

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