| USS HAMMANN (June 6, 1942)
US destroyer lost during the Battle of Midway. When the aircraft carrier Yorktown was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-168 the Hamman moved close and tied up to the carrier in an effort to protect her from further damage. Sighting the wakes of four more torpedoes, the Hammann's gunners opened fire but failed to hit anything. The first torpedo passed under the keel of the destroyer and exploded against the Yorktown. The second smashed into the Hammann's side and into the No. 2 boiler room. Her keel broken, it took only four minutes for the destroyer to sink. Many of her survivors were killed in the water when her depth charges exploded.
The destroyers USS Balche and USS Benham rescued the survivors from the Yorktown and the Hammann and raced toward Pearl Harbor and safety. Of the Hammann's complement of 241 officers and men, five officers and 71 crewmen were lost. While en route to Pearl Harbor, 26 others died of their wounds.
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On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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