Navy names destroyer after Fall River native

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus honored retired Navy Capt. Thomas J. Hudner, a Medal of Honor recipient and Fall River native, in a ship-naming ceremony yesterday aboard the USS Constitution in Charlestown.

A type of guided missile destroyer — known as an Arleigh Burke class destroyer — was named the USS Thomas Hudner after “a personification of courage, honor and commitment,” Mabus said of Hudner, the last living Navy recipient of the Medal of Honor from the Korean War.

Hudner, 87, had received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman in 1951 for his selfless display of valor after he intentionally crashed his aircraft to rescue his wingman Ensign Jesse L. Brown — the first African American naval aviator to fly in combat.

Hudner was injured in his courageous but failed attempt in sub-zero temperatures to rescue Brown, who was trapped under his aircraft that crashed after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.