Herbert Hugo Menges, born in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 20 January 1917 enlisted in the Naval Reserve as seaman second class at Robertson, Missouri on 3 July 1939. Appointed naval aviator 24 July 1940 he was assigned to Squadron 6 on USS Enterprise (CV-6)

USS Enterprise (CV-6)

USS Enterprise , colloquially referred to as the "Big E," was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and the seventh U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. Launched in 1936, she was a ship of the Yorktown class, and one of only three American carriers commissioned prior to World War II to...

 28 November 1940. Ensign Menges was killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 7 December 1941.

Namesake

In 1943, the destroyer escort

Destroyer escort

A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...

 USS Menges (DE-320)

USS Menges (DE-320)

The USS Menges was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Ensign Herbert Hugo Menges , she was the first U.S...

was named in his honor.