Navy To Name Ship After Ludington Korean War Hero

Naval Hospital Corpsman Master Chief William Charette is a Korean War hero. The Medal of Honor recipient will now be getting yet another distinction.

The Navy announced this week an Arleigh Burke-class Naval Destroyer will be named after Charette.

The Ludington native also has a naval medical center named after him in Virginia and is noted to be the selector of the Unknown Soldier, displayed in an unmarked tomb at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Medal of Honor is the highest distinction of valor the military awards and the actions of Naval Hospital Corpsman William Charette that day in Korea were of the highest valor.

“They were trying to take these hills back and these grenades are coming down the hill, He put himself on top of this one injured Marine while the grenade went off,” says Charette’s nephew, Tom Ezdebski, “He was kind of blinded temporarily, received some shrapnel but he took his own vest off and placed it on someone else who was injured. Then even later after that he stood up and he was carrying people down the hill that were injured. They couldn’t move themselves so the combination of all of that is what earned him the Medal.”

Now he will be further honored, the Navy announcing he is the next to have a destroyer named after him.

“It’s amazing to think now what he did but again you would’ve never heard it from him,” says Ezdebski, ”Because what he said was I only did what anybody would’ve done in that situation. He always was like what is everyone making a big deal about, I didn’t do anything.”

There were only five sailors who receive the Medal of Honor coming out of the Korean War and Charrette was the only survivor. He lived until 2012 but his legacy will go on thanks to a memorial in Stearns Park and the Naval destroyer.

“By having this ship named after him, that will keep those memories alive and those sacrifices those people made,” says Ezdebski.

Charette was willing to sacrifice everything for others and you can see around town and now across the world, his legacy will live on.

“We’re so proud of him here and I think the whole community is proud of what he has done,” says Ezdebski, “And the fact that he was so humble.”