Name: Lawson
Peterson Ramage
Rank and Branch: Commander, U.S. Navy
Born: 19 January 1920, Monroe Bridge Mass
Other Navy Awards: Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star
Medal, Navy Commendation Medal
Citation: For conspicuous
gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond
the call of duty as commanding officer of the USS Parche
in a predawn attack on a Japanese convoy, 31 July 1944. Boldly
penetrating the screen of a heavily escorted convoy, Cmdr. Ramage
launched a perilous surface attack by delivering a crippling stern
shot into a freighter and quickly following up with a series of bow
and stern torpedoes to sink the leading tanker and damage the second
one. Exposed by the light of bursting flares and bravely defiant of
terrific shellfire passing close overhead, he struck again, sinking
a transport by two forward reloads. In the mounting fury of fire
from the damaged and sinking tanker, he calmly ordered his men
below, remaining on the bridge to fight it out with an enemy now
disorganized and confused. Swift to act as a fast transport closed
in to ram, Cmdr. Ramage daringly swung the stern of the speeding
Parche as she she crossed the bow of the onrushing ship, clearing by
less than fifty feet but placing his submarine in a deadly crossfire
from escorts on all sides and with the transport dead ahead.
Undaunted, he sent three smashing "down-the-throat" bow shots to
stop the target, the scored a killing hit as a climax to forty six
minutes of violent action with the Parche and her valiant fighting
company retiring victorious and unscathed. |
