REMEMBERING THIS DAY–17 MAY 2021–THE MEN OF THE USS STARK (FFG-31) thirty-seven 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.

More of an accounting…

“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