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Contact Info
Home Town Brooklyn, NY
Last Address BURIED AT: SECTION 4 SITE 2 ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Solomon Silas Isquith
Rear Admiral, United States Navy
WWI and WWII
A Jewish boy growing up in Brooklyn, Solomon Silas Isquith yearned to join the Navy. The problem was, at 5’4" he was just a little too short to pass the physical at the United States Naval Academy. Solomon was not a quitter. He reapplied and the night before he was to re-take the physical, he tied flat irons to his ankles and placed them over the side of the footboard of his bed. He took the physical the next morning and miraculously had grown just tall enough to gain admission to Annapolis!
Twenty-one years later, Solomon served as the Commanding Officer of the US Battleship Utah, stationed in Pearl Harbor. The Utah became the first ship sunk by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. Escaping through a porthole, Solomon oversaw a rescue operation that led to the survival of more than 90 percent of the crew of the Utah. But his day was not yet over. Solomon organized a team of survivors and commandeered a small boat to sail across the harbor under enemy fire. Using torches, Solomon and his team cut through the hulls of capsized ships in the harbor, allowing many more sailors to escape certain death. For his actions, Solomon was awarded the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart.
Solomon went on to become a Rear Admiral in the Navy and was instrumental in the design of a national defense strategy that was used as a model for the Department of Homeland Security.
Other Comments:
USS UTAH - AG16, PEARL HARBOR On the morning of 7 December 1941, the senior officer on board
-the captain and executive officer were ashore on leave-
was Lt. Comdr. Solomon S. Isquith, the engineering officer.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER SOLOMON SILAS ISQUITH Navy Cross
Navy Cross
Awarded for actions during World War II
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander Solomon Silas Isquith, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the Target Ship U.S.S. UTAH (AG-16), during the Japanese attack on the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. With extraordinary courage and disregard of his own safety, Lieutenant Commander Isquith directed the abandonment of the ship when it was capsizing rapidly, in such a cool and efficient manner that approximately ninety per cent of the crew were saved. The conduct of Lieutenant Commander Isquith throughout this action reflects great credit upon himself, and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Action Date: December 7, 1941 Service: Navy Rank: Lieutenant Commander Company: Commanding Officer Division: U.S.S. Utah (AG-16)
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Okinawa Gunto Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories World War II
Noble's primary mission was to transport to a combat area the men and some of the material necessary for an assault on an enemy shore. Her main armament, her boat group, was designed to deliver her troops and cargo to the beach in a planned and orderly fashion. After discharging troops and equipment, she could evacuate casualties or prisoners of war. [edit] Invasion of Okinawa
In January 1945, Noble steamed westward to participate in the Okinawa campaign.