Leroy “Roy” Francis King

Branch: Navy
Rank: SEA2
Born: May 10, 1911
Reported Missing: September 14, 1944
Unit: USS Warrington (DD-383)
Location: Atlantic Ocean
Current Status: Not Recovered
Memorial

The USS Warrington was sunk near the Bahamas during a hurricane. The water rushing into her vents caused a loss of electrical power which set off a chain reaction. Her main engines lost power, and her steering engine and mechanism went out. She wallowed there in the trough of the swells, continuing to ship water. She regained headway briefly and turned upwind, while her radiomen desperately, but fruitlessly, tried to raise Hyades. Finally, she resorted to a plain-language distress call to any ship or shore station. By noon on 13 September, it was apparent that Warrington’s crewmen could not win the struggle to save their ship, and the order went out to prepare to abandon ship. By 12:50, her crew had left Warrington; and she went down almost immediately. A prolonged search by Hyades, Frost, Huse, Inch, Snowden, Swasey, Woodson, Johnnie Hutchins, ATR-9, and ATR-62 rescued only five officers and 68 men of the destroyer’s 20 officers and 301 men.

His brother, John, also made the ultimate sacrifice.