Name: George Robert Cholister
Rank: Boatswain’s Mate First Class
War/Conflict: Peacetime Heroism (USS Trenton Gun Mount Explosion)
Date of Action: October 20, 1924
Unit: U.S. Navy, USS Trenton
Born: December 18, 1898 – Camden, New Jersey
Accredited to: New Jersey
Summary of Action
It was late in the afternoon aboard the light cruiser USS Trenton, as the crew prepared to test-fire the ship’s forward twin 6-inch gun mount. Without warning, two powder charges ignited in the confined space, instantly filling the turret with fire, smoke, and searing gases. Twenty sailors were trapped.
Boatswain’s Mate First Class George Cholister was among them. When he saw the left gun’s powder charge burst into flame, he realized the second charge—still unignited—was seconds from exploding. Without a moment’s hesitation, he leapt toward the burning cartridges, trying to shove the live charge into the immersion tank to prevent a second detonation. Before he could complete the task, the fire engulfed the right charge as well, enveloping the turret in an inferno.
Cholister collapsed from the heat and fumes but had bought precious seconds for his shipmates, who were dragged from the wreckage by rescue crews. Though mortally burned, he survived until the following day—dying as he had lived, in service to others.
His selfless act aboard the Trenton was recognized years later by a Special Act of Congress in 1933, awarding him the Medal of Honor for “extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession.”
Medal of Honor Citation
CHOLISTER, GEORGE ROBERT
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate First Class, U.S. Navy.
Born: 18 December 1898, Camden, N.J.
Accredited to: New Jersey.
(Awarded by Special Act of Congress 3 February 1933.)
Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of a fire on board the U.S.S. Trenton. At 3:35 on the afternoon of 20 October 1924, while the Trenton was preparing to fire trial installation shots from the two 6-inch guns in the forward twin mount of that vessel, two charges of powder ignited. Twenty men were trapped in the twin mount. Four died almost immediately and ten later from burns and inhalation of flames and gases. The six others were severely injured. Cholister, without thought of his own safety, on seeing that the charge of powder from the left gun was ignited, jumped for the right charge and endeavored to put it in the immersion tank. The left charge burst into flame and ignited the right charge before Cholister could accomplish his purpose. He fell unconscious while making a supreme effort to save his shipmates and died the following day.
