Oliver Henry (USCG)


Oliver Henry was a sailor in the United States Coast Guard. He started serving in the Coast Guard in 1940, as a Mess Steward, when the United States armed services were still racially segregated. He was the first black sailor to transfer from the Mess Steward occupational class. He was transferred to the Machinist Mate occupational class - related to his pre-service work as an auto mechanic.

Personal life

Henry was born in 1921, in Winterville, North Carolina. After his high school graduation he worked as a auto mechanic, until he enlisted in the Coast Guard, in 1940.
Henry married in the 1950s, and his daughter, Jo-Ann, married the first black graduate of the Coast Guard academy, Merle J. Smith.

Coast Guard career

After completing basic training he worked as a Mess Steward aboard the USCGC Manhattan and the USCGC Champlain. William Theissen, a Coast Guard historian, noted that during segregation, when all black sailors served as Mess Stewards, Mess Stewards could not be promoted to Petty Officer rank.
In 1941 Henry was transferred to the USCGC Northland, and it was during the four years he served aboard the Northland that Henry became the Coast Guard's first black Machinist Mate. In 1942, when the Northlands executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Carlton Skinner, recommended transferring Henry to the engineering branch, submitting test results, showing he had excellent qualifications, bureaucrats in the Coast Guard's personnel administration, turned down the request because he was "colored". Skinner appealed, and Henry was transferred.
Henry rose quickly through the ranks on the Northland, being promoted to Chief Petty Officer in late 1943.
Henry would serve on seven more cutters, after World War 2, including the USCGC Mackinac.
In 1950 Henry was promoted to Warrant Officer, and would rise through the Warrant Officer ranks. Late in his career he served on the Coast Guard's Member Auditing Board and Member Training Board.

Maritime Administration career

Following his career in the Coast Guard Henry joined the U.S. Maritime Administration. When he retired in 1986 he was deputy director of the administration's Southern California office.

Legacy

In 2010, Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the Coast Guard's most senior non-commissioned officer, proposed that all the cutters in the Sentinel class should be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who were recognized for their heroism, or who otherwise represented a model of service that should be emulated. In 2018 the Coast Guard announced Henry would be the namesake of the 40th Sentinel class cutter, USCGC Oliver Henry.
When the Oliver Henry is stationed at its home port of Santa Rita, Guam, it will be serviced at a maintenance facility named after his mentor, Carlton Skinner.