DECEMBER 9, 2024 – Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jackson Charles Pharris saved a lot of lives when the Japanese bombed his battleship during the Pearl Harbor attacks that thrust the U.S. into World War II. With his quick thinking, he managed to drag several of his shipmates from flooding compartments while directing fire on the enemy. Pharris received the Medal of Honor for his leadership and valor.
Pharris was born on June 26, 1912, in Columbus, Georgia, to Charles and Eula Pharris. He had four brothers and a sister.
According to the National World War II Museum, Pharris joined the Navy in April 1933 when he was 20 years old and spent several years serving on the battleship USS Mississippi. By January 1941, he was promoted and transferred to another battleship, the USS California, to serve as a gunner. In early November 1941, the California docked itself along Battleship Row on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii.
About a month later, on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the island’s many troops. Pharris was in charge of the California’s ordnance repair party on the ship’s third deck when a Japanese torpedo struck almost directly under his station. He was hurled to the ship’s overhead, then back to its deck by the explosion.
Despite being concussed and seriously injured, Pharris recovered quickly. He jumped into action to get his shipmates to pass ammunition down a line for use by the ship’s antiaircraft guns.
The torpedo explosion tore the port bulkhead from the deck, causing water and oil to rush in and quickly incapacitate several crew members. The ship lost power and, after a second torpedo hit, started to list heavily portside.
Knowing the severity of the situation, Pharris ordered the shipfitters aboard to perform a damage control technique known as counterflooding, in which compartments are flooded to counter the ship’s listing. As that was happening, Pharris twice fell unconscious due to his injuries and the noxious oil fumes. But each time he woke back up, he continued his effort to speed up the supply of ammunition to the antiaircraft guns.
He also repeatedly risked his life to go into the flooding compartments and drag out several unconscious shipmates who were gradually being submerged in oil. Pharris was credited with saving the lives of 17 men. His valiant efforts and leadership were largely responsible for keeping the battleship in action during the attack.
According to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency, 103 men from the California died that day and 20 sailors still remain unaccounted for. Aside from the two torpedoes, the battleship was also hit by a bomb and barely missed being struck by a second. The California slowly sank and, days after the initial attack, settled on the bottom of the harbor. It was eventually raised, repaired and sent back into service.
Pharris was hospitalized for his injuries until March 1942, when he returned to duty. Four months later, he was commissioned as an ensign, officially becoming an officer.
In November 1942, Pharris met Elizabeth Potter during a command social event while the ship was docked in Bremerton, Washington. Less than a year later, they were married. The pair had four children, one of whom later became a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps.
Prior to the wedding, Pharris was hospitalized again due to oil that was still in his lungs from the Pearl Harbor attack. He eventually returned to service aboard the heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul as it was bombarding the Japanese mainland toward the end of the war.
Pharris was injured yet again in a kamikaze attack five days after the Japanese signed the surrender proclamation in September 1945. According to researcher Duane Vachon, as the plane was coming for the ship, Pharris ordered the crew to take cover and directed the ship’s guns to shoot the aircraft down. The impact of the guns broke Pharris’ back.
Pharris was hospitalized from that incident until April 1946. He was then temporarily assigned to duty at Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California. About two years later, he was medically retired at the rank of lieutenant commander.
According to the National World War II Museum, Pharris initially received the Navy Cross for his bravery in Pearl Harbor; however, his actions were reviewed in 1948, and the award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. He received the nation’s highest honor for valor on June 25, 1948, from President Harry S. Truman during a White House ceremony.
Pharris was the first World War II veteran to be recommended for the Medal of Honor. Three of his fellow shipmates on the California also received the award posthumously: Ensign Herbert C. Jones, Warrant Officer Thomas J. Reeves and Petty Officer 1st Class Robert R. Scott.
Pharris and his family decided to remain in California after his retirement, settling in the Rolling Hills Estates area of Los Angeles. Pharris went back to school, first attending Long Beach City College before transferring to the University of Southern California, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in June 1956.
In 1959, Pharris was again credited for his life-saving skills during an industrial accident in which a gas explosion in Long Beach filled a pipeline ditch with fire. Newspaper accounts at the time say Pharris helped pull a construction worker from the ditch, likely saving his life.
Pharris often attended events involving Medal of Honor recipients. Sadly, on Oct. 16, 1966, he was attending one of those events at the Beverly Hilton Hotel when he collapsed from a heart attack. He died the following day at a veterans’ hospital.
Pharris is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1972, the destroyer escort USS Pharris was named in his honor.
In the early 2000s, Pharris’ medals were lost for a few years. According to various newspaper accounts, his wife and one of his daughters had placed them in a safety deposit box, but both died in short succession, so the contents of the box were taken by the state as unclaimed property. When Pharris’ remaining family learned the medals were missing and discovered what happened to them, they petitioned to get the valuables back.
Pharris’ medals were finally returned to his family in 2007 during a ceremony in Los Angeles.
By Katie Lange, DOD News