After having read William R. Wells, II (Wells2)’s story of First Lieutenant (later Commodore), Frank H. Newcomb, USRCS’s, performance during the Spanish American War, in which Wells2 noted that the Navy had named a destroyer after Commodore Newcomb, and seeing reference to USS Newcomb on the Navy History and Heritage Foundation Facebook page (now a broken link–Chuck) in connection with with the first heavy Kamakaze attacks of the Okinawa Campaign, I had to find out more.

The ship had a very short but illustrious career. She sank at least one and maybe two Japanese subs, lead a torpedo attack that sank a battleship, and survived five kamakaze hits. You can read about it here. They did get some things wrong with regard to the Battle of Cardenas, and the ships anti-aircraft battery, but the rest of the information appears reliable, and some of the pictures of the damage to the ship are very impressive.

This gives us another reason to name a cutter after Newcomb. Not only would we be honoring one of our heroes. We would be honoring this brave ship and our ties with the Navy.