A U.S. Coast Guard veteran and Silver Star Medal recipient was laid to rest Friday with members of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps there to honor him.
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Frederick Dean Mann was born Oct. 14, 1918 and died Jan. 9, 2017. Friday’s services included a fly over from a Coast Guard helicopter and a 21-gun salute from the Coast Guard's Ceremonial Honor Guard. In Mann's honor, the U.S. Navy's USS Michael Murphy was scheduled to lay a wreath over the wreckage of USS George F. Elliot in Iron Bottom Sound off Guadalcanal.
Mann enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard on Aug. 27, 1939 and retired after 31 years of service. During his service, he was assigned to the USS George F. Elliot off the coast of Guadalcanal in 1942. After an enemy plane was shot down and crashed into the ship, Mann responded heroically to the resulting fire and was awarded the Silver Star Medal for his conspicuous gallantry in the face of great personal danger.
His Silver Star citation reads as follows:
“For conspicuous gallantry while attached to the USS George Elliott in action against Japanese forces off Guadalcanal August 8, 1942. When a hostile plane was shot down and exploded on board the ship, transforming the ship into a blazing torch, Mann carried a fire hose into the troop ammunition magazine to flood the compartment. Subsequently, despite suffocating smoke and dangerously heated bulkheads he reentered the compartment recovered the hose and continued his efforts. His action prevented the magazine from exploding."
