Milton Ernest Ricketts

He fought a raging shipboard fire despite his mortal wounds.

Milton Ernest Ricketts was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 5 August 1913. He attended Baltimore City College and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1935. After serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, he helped prepare USS Yorktown for commissioning in September 1937 and became a member of her original crew.

Ricketts served in Yorktown during the years before American entry into the Second World War. Navy directories place him aboard the carrier in April 1941. The ship operated in the Atlantic before moving to the Pacific after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In early 1942 Yorktown took part in the raids against Japanese positions in the Gilbert Islands and at Lae and Salamaua, New Guinea.

On 8 May 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea, Lieutenant Ricketts led an engineering repair party aboard Yorktown. A Japanese bomb passed through the ship and exploded beneath his battle station, killing, wounding or stunning the men around him. Ricketts was mortally wounded. He nevertheless opened a fireplug, brought a hose into action and directed water onto the flames before collapsing beside it. His action helped prevent the fire from spreading.

Ricketts received the Medal of Honor posthumously. He was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery. His widow sponsored the destroyer escort USS Ricketts, named in his honour. His death at twenty-eight ended a naval career that had begun at Annapolis and continued through two of the Navy's early aircraft carriers.

Medal of Honor citation

For extraordinary and distinguished gallantry above and beyond the call of duty as Officer-in-Charge of the Engineering Repair Party of the U.S.S. Yorktown in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942. During the severe bombarding of the Yorktown by enemy Japanese forces, an aerial bomb passed through and exploded directly beneath the compartment in which Lieutenant Ricketts' battle station was located, killing, wounding or stunning all of his men and mortally wounding him. Despite his ebbing strength, Lieutenant Ricketts promptly opened the valve of a near-by fireplug, partially led out the fire hose and directed a heavy stream of water into the fire before dropping dead beside the hose. His courageous action, which undoubtedly prevented the rapid spread of fire to serious proportions, and his unflinching devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.