US Coast Guard ship named after V.S.’s own Clarence Sutphin

Two years ago, the Sutphin siblings got an unusual call from a Coast Guard captain, notifying them of plans to name a new Sentinel-class cutter after their late father, Clarence Sutphin Jr., to honor his valiant service in World War II.

When the caller asked Brian Sutphin to speak to his older brother, Doug, Brian sent Doug a quick warning: “I don’t know if this is a scam or not. Don’t send them any money.”

It wasn’t a scam. It was World War II history. Valley Stream native Clarence Sutphin Jr., of the United States Coast Guard, had risked his life countless times in perilous conditions to save his fellow servicemen, and became a decorated war hero.

But it wasn’t until 2020 that the Sutphin family learned the details of Clarence’s heroics in the war. “We never knew this side of my dad at all,” said Mona Rossero of Northport, Sutphin’s oldest daughter. “We never knew any of his heroics. Absolutely no idea.”

While living with his family in Huntington, Clarence, who died in 1992, at age 68, never went into much detail about his time in the war. “And I just found out from a friend of mine that when he met my dad years ago, my dad told him that he was a cook in the Coast Guard,” Rossero said. That was the only detail the friend uncovered, because her father, Rossero added, “was a very private guy about his past.”

Sutphin grew up in Valley Stream, and was an excellent student athlete at Central, playing football and baseball and wrestling as well. He had developed nautical interests as a boy, and became a skilled deckhand on fishing boats.

“He loved to play sports and he loved being on the water,” Rossero said. “While other kids were delivering papers, you know, he was down there on the fishing boats.” 

But his seafaring adventures at home were only the beginning. In November 1941, just weeks before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the 18-year-old Sutphin enlisted in the Coast Guard as a petty officer first class.

In May 1942, he was assigned to the USS Leonard Wood, a Coast Guard landing craft supporting American troops in North Africa, Sicily and the Pacific theater. The Wood, according to the Coast Guard’s Atlantic area historian William Thiesen, saw action in some of the war’s bloodiest amphibious operations.

During the June 15, 1944, Battle of Saipan in the Mariana Islands — known as Pacific D-Day — Sutphin helped oversee warship operations including landing, loading and salvaging other ships while braving heavy enemy mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire, Thiesen explained.

Sutphin’s heroic actions included “running back and forth to the beaches, amid stiff enemy resistance, to help land troops, deliver ammunition, food, blood, and medical supplies,” according to an account written by the Navy League.

Sutphin also swam a towline to a landing craft stranded on a reef under mortar fire, with five Americans trapped on board, Thiesen wrote. He then rescued another boat that was stuck on the beach and was being targeted by Japanese artillery, coming to the aid of eight injured Marines, all while dodging mortar rounds and sniper fire. His exceptional bravery earned him a Bronze Star.

Family members shared one last crowning hurrah for Sutphin’s service when the 154-foot Coast Guard Cutter Clarence Sutphin Jr. was officially commissioned April 21 at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in Manhattan — the city’s first commissioning in over a decade. The Sentinel Class cutter will be deployed with the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet out of Bahrain, according to officials.

“It was very humbling, and listening to folks talk about my dad and, and you know, all things that he did was just, it was just amazing,” Rossero said. “There were no other words … I had no words for it.”

Valley Stream Mayor Edwin Fare, who attended the event, presented a citation on behalf of the village to the crew of the newly named cutter.

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