USS Holton ( DE - 703 ) Holton ( DE - 703 ) was named after Ralph Lee Holton , who was born on 19 September 1918 , and graduated from the Naval Academy in December 1941 . He was awarded the Navy Cross for his valiant rescue work aiding survivors of the stricken aircraft carrier " Lexington " on 8 May 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea . As officer - in - charge of a boat detailed to rescue survivors from the burning carrier , Ensign Holton , under a hail of flaming debris from bombs , ammunition , and gasoline exploding on " Lexington " , persistently returned to the stricken ship and thus effected a series of daring rescues in which he saved the lives of many members of the ship ' s crew who otherwise would have been lost . Less than a month later , on 6 June , Ensign Holton was reported missing and presumed dead as his ship , the destroyer " Hammann " , was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Midway while assisting the aircraft carrier " Yorktown " . Holton , a Buckley class destroyer escort , was launched on 15 December 1943 at Defoe Shipbuilding Company , Bay City , Michigan , sponsored by Mrs . Edith Holton , mother of Ensign Holton . She was commissioned on 1 May 1944 at New Orleans , Louisiana , with Lieutenant Commander J . B . Boy , USNR , in command . After shakedown , the new destroyer escort sailed on 24 July on the Norfolk - Bizerte convoy run , returning without incident to Boston , Massachusetts on 9 September . On her second trans - atlantic convoy , begun on 2 October , " Holton " went into action on 14 October as two ships , a cargo vessel and a tanker loaded with high octane gasoline , collided about off the African coast and burst into flames . After picking up the crew of the Liberty ship carrying cargo , " Holton " remained close aboard and sent over a repair party to salvage the fiercely burning ship . Although her hull was being crushed from rolling against the other ship , " Holton " lay alongside through a long night with six hose lines running to the stricken ship and by morning had succeeded in getting the fire under control . The next day , the ship ' s crew was transferred back on board and with " Holton " as escort she proceeded to Dakar , two - thirds of the cargo as well as the ship having been saved . Ordered to the Pacific , " Holton " departed Norfolk on Christmas Day 1944 , and arrived at Manus , Admiralty Islands , on 5 February 1945 for duty in the Philippines . From then through the end of the war some 6 months later , her principal duty was escorting convoys within the Philippine Sea Frontier boundaries . After escorting two Navy ships to Tokyo Bay on 31 August , " Holton " shepherded a convoy from Okinawa to Korea from 11 – 13 September , and then made two similar voyages to the Chinese coast . Departing Okinawa on 8 November , the DE streamed her homeward - bound pennant and reached Boston via Pearl Harbor , San Diego , and the Panama Canal on 15 December . Proceeding down the coast , " Holton " berthed at Green Cove Springs , Florida , on 20 January 1946 , and remained there until decommissioning and going into reserve on 31 May 1946 . Holton was moved in January 1947 to Orange , Texas . She was sold for scrap .