REMEMBERING THIS DAY–17 MAY 2017–THE MEN OF THE USS STARK (FFG-31) thirty-three years later!!!
Sunday, 17 May 2020
USS Stark (FFG-31): Was an Oliver Hazard Perry class of guided-missile frigate named for Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark (1880–1972). In 1987, an Iraqi jet fired two missiles at Stark, killing 37 U.S. sailors on board. USS STARK was decommissioned on 7 May 1999. Stark was scrapped in 2006.
“So, we ask again: Were they heroes? ‘Heroes are not supermen,’ Herman Wouk once reminded us, ‘they’re good men, and embodied by the cast of destiny, the virtue of a whole people in a great hour.’ And writing of the thousands of such heroes in our nation, men and women who wear our country’s uniform in this troubled peace of ours, he asked us to never forget ‘to reassure them that their hard, long training is needed, that love of country is noble, that self-sacrifice is rewarding, that to be ready to fight for freedom fills a man with a sense of worth like nothing else.’ And he said, ‘If America is still the great beacon in dense gloom, the promise to hundreds of millions of the oppressed that liberty exists, that it is the shining future, that they can throw off their tyrants, and learn freedom and cease learning war, then we still need heroes to stand guard in the night.’ ”
MEN OF USS STARK (FFG- 31) – 17 May 1987
USS STARK (FFG-31) CASUALTIES:
- Seaman Doran H. Bolduc, Lacey, Washington
- First Class Petty Officer Boatswain Mate Braddi O. Brown, Calera, Alabama
- Third Class Petty Officer Fire Controlman Jeffrey L. Calkins, Richfield Springs, New York
- Seaman Apprentice Radioman (Striker) Dexter D. Grissett, Macon, Georgia
- Third Class Petty Officer Fire Controlman William R. Hansen, Reading, Massachusetts
- Third Class Petty Officer Gunners Mate (Guns) Daniel Homicki, Elizabeth, New Jersey
- Senior Chief Petty Officer Fire Controlman Robert L. Shippee, Adams Center New York
- Seaman Apprentice Signalman (Striker) Jeffrey C. Sibley, Metairie, Louisiana
- Third Class Petty Officer Operations Specialist Lee Stephens, Pemberton, Ohio
- Seaman Mark R. Caouette, Fitchhburg, Massachusetts
- Seaman John A. Ciletta, Jr., Brigantine, New Jersey
- Seaman Recruit Brian M. Clinefelter, San Bernardino, California
- Third Class Petty Officer Operations Specialist Antonio A. Daniels, Greeleyville, South Carolina
- Seaman Operations Specialist Striker Kenneth D. Janusik, Jr., Clearwater, Florida
- Petty Officer First Class Operations Specialist Steven E. Kendall, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Senior Chief Petty Officer Electrician’s Mate Stephen Kiser, Elkhart, New Jersey
- First Class Petty Officer Signalman Ronnie G. Lockett, Bessemer, Alabama
- Second Class Petty Officer Boatswain Mate James R. Stevens, Visalia, California
- Third Class Petty Officer Martin J. Supple, Jacksonville, Florida
- First Class Petty Officer Fire Controlman Gregory L. Tweady, Champaign, Illinois
- Third Class Petty Officer Electricians Mate Kelly R. Quick, Linden, Michigan
- Third Class Petty Officer Christopher DeAngelis, Dumont, New Jersey
- Third Class Petty Officer Interior Communications Electrician James S. Dunlap, Osceola Mills, Pennsylvania
- Seaman Sonar Technician – Surface (Striker) Steven T. Erwin, Troy Michigan
- Second Class Petty Officer Radioman Jerry Boyd, Charleston, South Carolina
- First Class Petty Officer Gunners Mate (Missiles) Thomas J. MacMullen, Darby, Pennsylvania
- Third Class Petty Officer Electronic Warfare Technician Charles T. Moller, Columbus, Georgia
- First Class Petty Officer Data Systems Technician Randy E. Pierce, Choctaw, Oklahoma
- Seaman Apprentice Jeffrei L. Phelps, Locust Grove, Virginia
- Seaman Vincent L. Ulmer, Bay Minette, Alabama
- Third Class Petty Officer Jospeh P. Watson, Ferndale, Michigan
- Third Class Petty Officer Electronics Technician Wayne R. Weaver, New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
- Seaman Operations Specialist (Striker) Terrance Weldon, Coram, New York
- Senior Chief Quartermaster [Navigator] Vernon T. Foster, Jacksonville, Florida
- Third Class Gunners Mate James Plonsky, Van Nuys, California
- Seaman Signalman (Striker) Earl P. Ryals, Boca Raton, Florida
- Second Class Petty Officer Interior Communications Electrician Lloyd A. Wilson, Summerville, South Carolina
