For as long as there has been a U.S. Navy there has been the practice of naming its ships after individuals who have made important contributions to the service. Since 1902, our naval destroyers have sailed under the names of deceased heroes of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. USS Litchfield (DD-336) is but one of hundreds of destroyers that have followed this naming convention. But unlike those christened before, the Litchfield holds the distinction as the first ship named in honor of a Navy hospital corpsman.

Commissioned on May 12, 1920, USS Litchfield had a life worthy of her Hospital Corps namesake. Over her first decade of service, she participated in several humanitarian efforts including the evacuation of over 250,000 Greek and Armenians refugees from Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish War (1922) and repatriating the remains of Private First Class George Dilboy, a Greek-American Medal of Honor recipient interred in Smyrna. During World War II, the Litchfield served as an escort for submarines and convoys from Pearl Harbor to the Northern Pacific and took part in two rescues of downed patrol planes. Remarkably, when finally decommissioned in 1944—after 24 years of service—Litchfield had a longer naval career than her namesake had been alive.

John Russell Litchfield—or “Russ” to his friends and family—was a product of small towns. Born in Flanagan, Illinois, on March 6, 1899, he later moved to and grew up in Blackwell, Oklahoma. The local Main Street, family and patriotic duty would all play big roles in Litchfield’s short life.

When the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917 there was little question that Litchfield would join the cause. Just over a month after his eighteenth birthday, he took the 100-mile trek south to Oklahoma City in order to enlist in the Navy.

Following boot camp and Hospital Corps School at Great Lakes, Litchfield reported to the newly established Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Va., in August 1917 for field medical training. At Quantico, Litchfield was assigned to the 6th Marine Regiment and part of the legendary Fourth Brigade, Second Division of the U.S. Army. He deployed with his unit to France in September 1917.

Many of those newly minted Corpsmen sailing across the Atlantic to France were kids just like Litchfield. Then as now, great responsibility was placed in the hands of these young medical providers who would serve as first responders on the frontlines and “life links” to so many Marines and Sailors in the direst of conditions.

For Lt. (later Vice Adm.) Joel Boone, a surgeon with the 6th Regiment, Litchfield’s youthful appearance did not instill him with great confidence of going to war. His initial impressions of the young HM was of a “skinny, undernourished. . .[and a] puny-looking youngster.” But while serving alongside Litchfield at Verdun, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Soissons, Boone soon discovered those impressions of the “youngster” were “off the mark.”

“I found this youngster always busy, rather in a sense a lone wolf, but always doing something,” remembered Boone. “As time went on and we got into the battle areas, he was very popular among officers and men of the company to which he was attached.”

Those who served with Litchfield later spoke of his “driven and energetic nature” and “utter fearlessness.” When the battle ended and the night sky shrouded the carnage of the day, Litchfield could be seen walking across “No Man’s Land” looking for wounded Marines.

Litchfield remained dedicated to his role as a corpsman until his very last day. On September 15, 1918, while serving on the eastern flank in the allied offensive on the St. Mihiel Salient, Litchfield was killed when taking a wounded soldier from a trench to the rear. He was 19 years old.

Although initially laid to rest at the St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Litchfield’s body was later moved to Arlington National Cemetery (Section 18, Grave 1931). For his actions in the war, Litchfield was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal and a Purple Heart.

Postscript:

Twenty-three years after USS Litchfield was launched, the Navy named three destroyer escorts after hospital corpsman killed in the Solomon Islands campaign. Since 1920 there have been 22 destroyers and frigates named in honor of fallen hospital corpsmen. This number includes the upcoming USS William Charette (DDG-130) and USS Kilmer (DDG-134), both named after Korean War Medal of Honor recipients.

Sources.
Boone, Joel T. Memoirs (Unpublished), Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Boxes 44-46.

The Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, 1959-1981. Retrieved from: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/l/litchfield.html, on April 13, 2023.

Lejeune, John. Letter to Mrs. Martha Litchfield, February 17, 1926. Retrieved from: www.ancestry.com, on April 13, 2023.

Strott, George. The Medical Department of the United States Navy with the Army and Marine Corps in France in World War I: Its Functions and Employment (NAVMED 1198). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1947.