Pearl Harbor hero: Charlotte man helped crew flee sinking ship
On Dec. 6, 1941, Francis Flaherty mailed Christmas cards and gifts from Hawaii to friends and family at home in Michigan.
On Dec. 7, he went down with the wreckage of the U.S.S. Oklahoma while holding a light to guide other sailors to safety after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
For that effort, Ensign Flaherty was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. A monument in his honor stands on the lawn of the historical courthouse in Charlotte. He was one of 429 sailors killed aboard the Oklahoma, which capsized after the bombing. A total of 2,403 Americans died in the attack that pulled the United States into World War II.
“He helped save a lot of lives, but he lost his own in the process,” said Don Colizzi of Charlotte, who spearheaded the effort to raise $20,000 to build the memorial to Flaherty and Civil War hero Michael Hudson. “We’re short on heroes today, so when you get a chance to honor a military hero, you should jump at that.”
Flaherty was born in Charlotte on March 15, 1919, and lived at 212 E. Harris St. in a house that is now vacant. His family attended St. Mary Catholic Church, but Flaherty’s parents died when he was still a teenager.
Flaherty’s brother John became his guardian, according to accounts in the Battle Creek Enquirer. Flaherty graduated from Charlotte High School in 1936 and from the University of Michigan in 1940. That’s also the year he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
The Oklahoma took as many as nine torpedoes in its hull. Flaherty and other crew members were trapped in a gun turret in almost complete darkness, according to a U.S. Navy summary of his heroism.
“One of the officers said the last time he saw Francis, Francis was knee-deep in water pushing his men toward an exit, and the water was rising at a rapid pace,” Colizzi said. He was 22 when he died.
The Enquirer – where Flaherty’s brother, John, worked in news at the time – reported that he and his wife received a package of gifts from Flaherty on Dec. 14, at approximately the same time his death aboard the Oklahoma was confirmed.
"Only yesterday the John Flaherty home received a package of Christmas presents from Ensign Flaherty," the Battle Creek Enquirer reported. "On Saturday, the John Flahertys and a number of Ensign Flaherty's friends in Battle Creek received Christmas cards he had mailed on December 6, the day before the Japanese attack."
On Jan. 16, 1942, Flaherty’s brother and sister-in-law traveled to a shipyard in Texas, where Maratha Hollman Flaherty launched the destroyer escort bearing Flaherty’s name. By then, they were living Maryland, where John Flaherty was working for the U.S. Army.
“I hope this ship serves the Navy as well as the man for whom she is named,” she said, according to an Enquirer account of the event.
A grave marker in Charlotte’s Maple Hill Cemetery memorializes Flaherty, but his body is not buried there. Flaherty went down with the Oklahoma. It eventually was righted in 1943, and remains of soldiers still aboard were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as “the Punchbowl.”
Those remains were exhumed last year, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has been analyzing DNA of those remains in an attempt to positively identify as many soldiers as possible. The remains of Navy Fireman 1st Class Jim H. Johnston, 23, of Wesson, Mississippi, will be buried Wednesday in his hometown, so there is a possibility Flaherty’s remains could someday be returned to Charlotte.
The Oklahoma was eventually sold for scrap, but sank as it was being towed back to the United States. The U.S. and Allied forces defeated Hitler's forces in Europe in May 1945 and accepted Japan's surrender in August 1945.
Contact Kathleen Lavey at (517) 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @kathleenlavey.
