During the precarious operation, the Comanche’s executive officer, Lieutenant Langford Anderson, fell overboard. Without hesitation, David dived into the deadly waters to save Anderson.
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Swanson recalled that David was a “tower of strength” who shouted encouragement to his fellow sailors during the harrowing ordeal. In addition to the two men whom David single-handedly saved, he and his shipmates successfully rescued 93 survivors from the Dorchester.
Although the Comanche and other ships rescued a total of 230 men from the Dorchester, nearly 700 others lost their lives. Shortly after David’s heroics, he contracted pneumonia from his time in the water.
I wanted to share this story on this day because it is an insult to the lives of those who lost theirs, who risked theirs, to erase stories such as this. Black American stories. Immigrant stories. 'DEI' stories.
And I also wonder, what would they say today? Would they be proud of us, wearing our poppies during a genocide we have yet to oppose? Wearing our poppies, condemning the refugees of the military industrial complex?
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