DREXLER AND CHOLISTER OF TRENTON

The light cruiser USS TRENTON (CL-11) was commissioned in April of 1924, one of the last of ten Omaha-class vessels authorized during WWI.  The principal difference between light and heavy cruisers of that day was not their displacement, rather the size of the guns.  Heavy cruisers mounted 8-inch guns, TRENTON mounted 6-inch guns–twenty of them (six mounted in five forward-firing turrets, six in stern turrets, and eight amidships).  TRENTON’s shakedown cruise to the Mediterranean was interrupted in August 1924 with news that the American Vice Consul to Persia, Robert Imbrie, had died.  TRENTON was diverted to Bushire, Persia (modern Bushehr, Iran), via the Suez Canal, where she received the Consul’s remains on August 25^th.  After exchanging gun salutes with Persian shore batteries, she departed that same day.  A month later she arrived at the Washington Navy Yard where she conveyed the diplomat’s remains to his final rest.

TRENTON began drills off the coast of Virginia this afternoon, commencing gunnery practice around 1500.  In the twin 6-inch mount on the cruiser’s forecastle, turret officer ENS Henry Clay Drexler mentored his nineteen-man gun crew through firing and reloading procedures.  One ever-present risk in such work was the possibility that residual cinders from a previous round might prematurely ignite charges rammed behind the next round.  The results were often disastrous, and crews were regularly drilled in dealing with such accidents.  Then shortly after 1535 the unthinkable happened.  A bagged powder charge for the port tube ignited prematurely as it was being loaded.  Flames and hot gasses engulfed the interior of the turret, killing three men instantly.  As the others reeled from the smoke and flame, Drexler and BM1 George R. Cholister lunged simultaneously for an unaffected charge still sitting exposed on the starboard gun’s ramming tray.  Drexler grabbed the powder bag and tried to pull it into an immersion bath beside the gun.  He was a split-second too late.  The charge cooked-off in his hands killing him instantly.  The interior of the turret was again bathed in hot gasses and flame.  Cholister, who had not quite reached the starboard charge, fell unconscious and lay mortally burned until the fires subsided.  He and nine others died the following day.  The six remaining gun crewmen survived their severe burns and inhalation injuries.

Both Drexler and Cholister were awarded the Medal of Honor for the selfless sacrifices this day.  The Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer DREXLER (DD-741) and the Drexler Manor Bachelor Officers Quarters on the present day JAB Little Creek in Norfolk are named in Drexler’s honor.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 OCT 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 300.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 266.

Moore, John.  Jane’s American Fighting Ships of the 20th Century.  New York, NY: Modern Publishing, 1995, pp. 108-10.

Site visit, Drexler Manor BOQ, JAB Little Creek, VA, 17 October 2001.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 490, 491.

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