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Lawson Paterson Ramage

Born 1/19/09. Died 4/15/90 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Lawson "Red" Ramage was Commanding Officer of the USS Rankin from 1953-1954. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic actions in WWII, and the USS Ramage (DDG 61) was named in his honor.



The New York Times
April 18, 1990

Lawson P. Ramage Is Dead at 81; Submarine Hero in World War II

By WOLFGANG SAXON (NYT)
Published: April 18, 1990

Lawson P. Ramage, a retired vice admiral who served in the Pacific in World War II and was one of the Navy's most decorated submariners, died of cancer on Monday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 81 years old.

Admiral Ramage, a 1931 graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, retired in 1969 as the commander of the Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service, then the oceangoing transport branch of the armed forces. But most of his Navy service was with submarines.

He won the Medal of Honor after a submarine he commanded, the U.S.S. Parche, attacked a heavily escorted Japanese convoy in the South China Sea off Taiwan on July 31, 1944, sinking two enemy vessels and damaging several others.

The Parche's crew received a Presidential Unit Citation, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally presented Admiral Ramage, then a commander, and six other Army and Navy heroes with the Medal of Honor on Jan. 10, 1945.

Navy Cross and Silver Star

In June 1942, as commander of the submarine Trout, he won the Navy Cross for valor in action at Midway, Truk, the Solomons and in the South China Sea. The Trout's crew was also awarded a Presidential citation.

Admiral Ramage, a native of Monroe Bridge, Mass., was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. He served aboard the U.S.S. Grenadine from April to June 1942, and was awarded the Silver Star Medal ''for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity'' as navigator on patrol in enemy-controlled waters.

After being commissioned as an ensign at Annapolis in 1931, he spent the next four years on several ships before taking submarine training and serving as executive officer on the U.S.S. Sands.

Led Search for the Thresher

After the war Admiral Ramage served in various submarine commands. In April 1963, as deputy commander of submarine forces in the Atlantic Fleet, he led the search operation for the atomic submarine Thresher, which sank in the Atlantic 220 miles east of Boston while making deep-dive tests, with the loss of 129 lives. Admiral Ramage was an expert witness in the ensuing Navy inquiry.

He was promoted to vice admiral later that year, became deputy chief of naval operations and became commander of the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1967.

Admiral Ramage's survivors include his wife of 55 years, the former Barbara Alice Pine; two sons, James, of Southboro, Mass., and Alfred, of Winthrop, Mass.; two daughters, Joan Mitchell of Washington, and Virginia Ross of Silver Spring, Md.; two brothers, Donald, of Oceanside, Calif., and John, of Rome, N.Y.; eight grandchildren, and a great-grandson.

A funeral service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery at 2 P.M. Friday.

Click Here to see the story of Lawson Ramage's Medal of Honor exploits and subsequent career.

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The Washington Post
April 17, 1990

Lawson Paterson Ramage, 81, a retired Navy vice admiral who as a World War II submarine commander won the Medal of Honor and two Navy Crosses, the Navy's highest awards for gallantry, died of cancer April 15 at his home in Bethesda.

Adm. Ramage was awarded the Medal of Honor for a 46-minute surface engagement against a Japanese convoy in which four enemy ships were sunk. The Navy Crosses covered extended patrol periods in which seven other enemy ships were sunk.

Adm. Ramage served 43 years in the Navy before his retirement in 1970 as commander of the Military Sea Transport Service. He spent much of his career as a submariner, beginning in 1935. He was assigned to Pearl Harbor as radio and sound officer for the submarine commander of the Pacific fleet when the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. He was assigned his first sea command, the submarine Trout, in June 1942.

He won a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for gallantry, for action in waters off Taiwan on July 31, 1944. According to the citation accompanying the award, Adm. Ramage, as commander of the submarine Parche, penetrated the screen of a heavily escorted enemy convoy, then engaged the Japanese in 46 minutes of surface combat operations, during which he sank two transport ships and two tankers, and seriously damaged a freighter. In this period the Parche fired 19 torpedoes, 15 of which hit enemy targets.

At one point, with "terrific shellfire passing close overhead," he sent his men below but remained on the bridge of the submarine. He avoided being rammed by an onrushing Japanese transport by less than 50 feet by swinging the stern of the Parche out of the way as the submarine crossed the bow of the transport, which he then sank with four torpedoes, while being caught in an enemy crossfire.

As commander of the Trout, Adm. Ramage directed war patrols in the Pacific from Aug. 27, 1942, to Feb. 25, 1943. During that time, three enemy ships totaling 19,725 tons were destroyed and another 51,600 tons of enemy shipping, including an aircraft carrier, were damaged.

He won his second Navy Cross as commander of the Parche from March 29 to May 23, 1944, when he sank four enemy ships totaling more than 30,000 tons.

Adm. Ramage was born in Monroe Bridge, Mass. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1931 and served aboard destroyers before being assigned as a submariner.

His post-World War II assignments included command of a four-submarine operation conducting cold water temperature tests in the Arctic. In 1947, he was assigned in Washington as a guided missile specialist in the office of the assistant chief of naval operations.

Later assignments included service on the staff of the commander of the submarine force of the Atlantic Fleet, command of a submarine squadron and then of an attack cargo ship, and an assignment as special assistant to Adm. Arleigh A. Burke, chief of naval operations.

He also commanded a cruiser division in the Mediterranean, was deputy commander of the submarine force of the Atlantic Fleet, then in 1964 became commander of the First Fleet in Coronado, Calif., where he trained forces for service in Vietnam. Before his final assignment, as commander of the Military Sea Transportation Service, he was deputy commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet.

Adm. Ramage's decorations also included two Distinguished Service Medals, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.

In retirement, he had held a variety of consulting jobs, served as a trustee of the Freedom Foundation in Valley Forge, Pa., and spent summers on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

He had been chairman of the finance committee and chairman of the membership committee of the Army Navy Country Club, senior warden of St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Bethesda and an amateur radio operator.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Barbara Alice Pine Ramage of Bethesda; four children, Joan R. Mitchell of Washington, James L. Ramage of Southboro, Mass., Alfred L. Ramage of Winthrop, Mass., and Virginia A. Ramage Ross of Silver Spring; two brothers, retired Navy Capt. Donald B. Ramage of Oceanside, Calif., and John J. Ramage of Rome, N.Y.; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandson.