Reminisce on Omaha’s ‘Hero of the Solomon Islands,’ Charles Jackson French [Video]

Petty Officer 1st Class Charles Jackson French was born in 1919 in rural Foreman, Arkansas, but he came to Omaha as a youth to live with his older sister, Viola, who had relocated to Nebraska. He enlisted in the rigidly segregated Navy in 1937, serving as a mess steward. It was one of the few jobs open to Black sailors of the era.

French returned to Omaha after his obligation ended in November 1941, but he reenlisted a few weeks later after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I want to do my part, because I’m already trained and I can start right away,” French said in an interview at the time with The World-Herald.

On Sept. 5., 1942, French was serving aboard the destroyer USS Gregory when it was attacked and sunk by Japanese ships in the middle of the night just offshore from Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands.

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