Name: Henry Leonard JACKSON
Rank / Rating: STM1-Steward's Mate First Class
Service #: 836 84 41
DOB: Jan 16, 1907
From: Beaverdam, VA
Parents:
Went Aboard: Apr 15, 1944
Age When Ship Went Down: 38 years, 6 months, 14 days
Spouse:
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Jane Gwinn Goodall
Date Posted:

Henry Jackson was born to Henry Jackson, Sr. and Hattie Mae Hooper Jackson, on 16 January 1907 in Beaverdam, Hanover County, Virginia. Beaverdam, an outlying suburb of Richmond, is a small unincorporated area of Hanover County in the central part of the state of Virginia. He was not married. He had at least one sibling, Elsie Vernon Jackson (1915-1982). Elsie’s daughter, Arlene Taylor, and granddaughter, Janice Alston, participated in the research that resulted in the publication of Heroes in the Shadows: The Untold Story of the African American Sailors Aboard USS Indianapolis (CA-35). Jackson’s extended family honors him through their genealogy searches as they try to understand his life and service in our country’s fight for freedom and democracy in World War II.

Jackson was 35 years old when he enlisted in the Navy on 27 October 1943 in Washington, DC. He came aboard USS Indianapolis (CA-35) on 15 Apr 1944 as a Steward’s Mate Third Class from the U.S. Navy Receiving Station at Shoemaker, California on the same date as his shipmate Toney Wade Bennett. He was promoted to Steward’s Mate Second Class just one month later on 14 May 1944. Jackson achieved the rank of Steward’s Mate First Class on 1 February 1945. His records in the Navy list him as Henry (n) Jackson. The (n) was used for all Navy personnel who did not specify a middle name in their enlistment papers. It stands for “no middle name.” We have since learned from the family that Jackson did have a middle name: Leonard. Jackson participated in the last five of the battles for which Indy received Battle Stars. Those battles included the capture and occupation of the strategically significant Japanese islands of Saipan, Guam, and other Pacific islands in June, July, and August of 1944. The family provided documentation of his commendations. The documents, duplicated from the Bureau of Personnel Enlisted Man’s Jacket, specify that Jackson “Participated in the bombardment, support, and occupation of Saipan, Guam and Tinian Islands, Marianas Islands, from 11 June to 10 August 1944.” Furthermore, on “18 June 1944: Participated in the engagement between the Fifth Fleet and the Japanese Fleet off Saipan, Marianas Islands, in which over 350 Japanese aircraft and several Japanese ships, including carriers and destroyers were destroyed by the American Forces.” It also states that he “participated in the bombardment, support, and occupation of the Palau Islands from 12 September 1944 to 29 September 1944.” The document is signed by C.A. (Charles Arthur) Ferriter, Commander, U. S. Navy. (See below) Henry Jackson was one of the older Sailors on the crew. He was 38 years old when the ship was sunk.