From the archives, Nov. 20, 2020: Charles Jackson French’s Omaha welcome

Omaha Commons looks back at a Black WWII Navy hero Omaha welcomed home.

OMAHA — Charles Jackson French, a Black Navy mess man, swam for hours after Japanese forces sank the USS Gregory near the Solomon Islands in September 1942, towing a life raft with about two dozen wounded shipmates until another vessel picked them up, according to a Douglas County Historical Society essay by DirectorDCHS.

French was born about 1920 in Foreman, Arkansas, raised as an orphan, and joined the Navy in 1937. After the Gregory went down near shore, he swam away from land so the men would not be captured. The essay quotes him weighing sharks against the shore risk and saying the sharks "will be quick." When a landing ship's crew told him to move to "colored" quarters, the men he saved insisted he stay with them on deck.

In October 1942 Omaha gave him a hero's welcome; his sister Viola lived here. Omaha Star editor S. Edward Gilbert hosted the visit. French met Sen. John Adams, stopped at Naval Headquarters and the Omaha World-Herald, toured the Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant, and was honored at Creighton's homecoming game on Oct. 31, 1942, where reports said he received a five-minute standing ovation. The Omaha Star ran a photo of French and Viola dated Nov. 6, 1942.

The essay keeps that Omaha welcome in local memory for readers tracing Black military service tied to the city.

Source: Douglas County Historical Society, Charles Jackson French, a WWII Naval Hero by DirectorDCHS.

How we checked this: Reported from the Douglas County Historical Society essay page (douglascohistory.org), opened Nov. 7, 2026, at about 5:28 a.m. CT, and checked against the record by our copy desk before publishing.