Loveman Noa


David Bernard Loveman Noa was an officer in the United States Navy. He was killed while on duty in the United States' newly acquired overseas territory of the Philippines. He is the namesake for two United States Navy destroyers.

Biography

He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the Jewish immigrants, Ismar Noa of Breslau, Prussia,, and Rose B. Loveman of Hungary. His siblings were Ernestine Noa ; Bianca Noa who married Albert Hodges Morehead, Sr. ; and Wallace Noa. His maternal uncle was David Barnard Loveman, who had moved to Chattanooga and started the Lovemans department store.
Noa was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy as a naval cadet on September 5, 1896. He graduated in June 1900. He was ordered to the Asiatic Station in gunboat Mariveles. On the morning of October 26, 1901 Midshipman Noa, with an armed crew of six men, put off from the Mariveles in a small boat to watch for craft engaged in smuggling contraband from the island of Leyte to Samar. When ready to return to the Mariveles, they found the wind and the tide against them. The boat was taking on water, and they put into a small cove on the island of Samar. While scouting the adjacent jungle, Noa was attacked and stabbed five times by Filipino insurgents, three times in the abdomen, one in the chest, and one in his left shoulder. He was then given a blow to the head. He died after fifteen minutes, before aid could reach him. He was buried in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

Legacy

and USS Noa were named for him; DD-841 was the ship that recovered John Glenn's Friendship 7 after his historic orbital flight in 1962.