Medal of Honor: Cassin Young – World War II – December 7, 1941

Name: Cassin Young
Rank: Commander
Organization: U.S. Navy
Unit: USS Vestal (AR-4)
Place and Date: Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii – 7 December 1941
Entered Service At: Wisconsin
Born: March 6, 1894 – Washington, D.C.
Departed: November 13, 1942 (Killed in Action at Guadalcanal)
Accredited To: Wisconsin

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Summary of Action

On the morning of the Pearl Harbor attack, Commander Cassin Young—captain of the repair ship USS Vestal—rushed to the bridge as bombs fell across Ford Island. Moored alongside USS Arizona, Vestal was immediately engulfed in the firestorm created by repeated enemy hits on the battleship. When Arizona’s forward magazine detonated in a massive explosion, the blast hurled Young overboard and into water aflame with burning oil.

Despite the shock, the injuries, and the chaos surrounding him, Young swam back to his ship. Vestal was ablaze, holed by multiple bombs, settling in the water, and threatened by the inferno consuming Arizona. Enemy aircraft continued to strafe and bomb the area.

With absolute calm and clear judgment, Young took personal command. Realizing that remaining alongside Arizona meant certain destruction, he ordered Vestal’s lines cut, moved her under her own power to a safer anchorage, and finally beached the ship to prevent sinking.

His leadership saved USS Vestal and her crew from annihilation.

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Medal of Honor Citation

For distinguished conduct in action, outstanding heroism and utter disregard of his own safety, above and beyond the call of duty, as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Vestal, during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by enemy Japanese forces on 7 December 1941. Comdr. Young proceeded to the bridge and later took personal command of the 3-inch antiaircraft gun. When blown overboard by the blast of the forward magazine explosion of the U.S.S. Arizona, to which the U.S.S. Vestal was moored, he swam back to his ship. The entire forward part of the U.S.S. Arizona was a blazing inferno with oil afire on the water between the 2 ships; as a result of several bomb hits, the U.S.S. Vestal was afire in several places, was settling and taking on a list. Despite severe enemy bombing and strafing at the time, and his shocking experience of having been blown overboard, Comdr. Young, with extreme coolness and calmness, moved his ship to an anchorage distant from the U.S.S. Arizona, and subsequently beached the U.S.S. Vestal upon determining that such action was required to save his ship.