events
August 31, 1943
USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.
USS Harmon (DE-678)
USS Harmon (DE-678) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy. USS Harmon was named after Mess Attendant Leonard Roy Harmon, who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions on the cruiser USS San Francisco during the Battle of Guadalcanal. USS Harmon was the first warship to be named after an African-American.