On August 31, 1943, the U.S. Navy commissioned USS Harmon (DE-678) at Bethlehem Steel’s Fore River yard in Quincy, Massachusetts. A Buckley-class destroyer escort, Harmon was the first U.S. Navy ship named for an African American: Mess Attendant First Class Leonard Roy Harmon, who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for heroism during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
Harmon served aboard the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco during the fierce night action off Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942. Amid intense Japanese gunfire, he helped move wounded sailors to safety; he then deliberately exposed himself to hostile fire to shield a wounded shipmate and was killed in action. His Navy Cross recognized that extraordinary act of self-sacrifice.
The commissioning of USS Harmon was therefore more than the entry of another warship into service. It was a landmark act of recognition in a Navy that was still racially segregated and sharply restricted the roles available to Black sailors. Naming the ship for Harmon publicly honored his courage and sacrifice—and marked the first time the Navy had bestowed that distinction on an African American sailor. USS Harmonserved in the Pacific for the rest of World War II, earning three battle stars while escorting convoys and carrier forces and conducting antisubmarine duties, leaving a legacy that remains an important moment in both naval history and the broader history of Black Americans’ military service.
