But his most riveting story — indeed the most dramatic story that all of Pohl's shipmates would tell — was of the Japanese kamikaze that came at the destroyer USS Sigsbee on April 14, 1945, skimming 15 feet off the water and exploding into the fantail.

"The shudder of it was enough to make you sick," Pohl said.

The blast killed 23 sailors and crippled the Sigsbee, but its skipper, Cmdr. Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon, refused to scuttle the ship, a move that would have forced its crew into the seas off the Japanese island of Kyushu.

Instead, the Honolulu native and Naval Academy football star kept his anti-aircraft batteries delivering "prolonged and effective fire" against the continuing air attack while directing damage control efforts, the Navy said.

Chung-Hoon was awarded the Navy Cross and Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism as commanding officer of the Sigsbee. He died in 1979.

Yesterday, 17 of the crew members — one in a wheelchair, Pohl using a cane, and with gray hair peeking out from USS Sigsbee baseball caps — toured the new destroyer named after their former skipper. Several commissioning bashes are planned this weekend and next week.

WWII veteran Alois J. Pohl walks on the helicopter deck of the USS Chung-Hoon, named after Rear Adm. Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We were in bad trouble, slowly but surely sinking, and we kept working to stop the flooding," Green said. "He (Chung-Hoon) told Adm. Halsey, 'No, I have kids on here that can't swim and I'm not putting them in the water. I'll take her back.' And he did."

The Sigsbee's sister ship towed the destroyer until its line parted. The cruiser Miami picked up the task, towing Sigsbee all night under fire, said Pohl, who lives in Arizona.

The ship eventually limped into Pearl Harbor at 5 knots.

The new $1 billion destroyer Chung-Hoon will be "brought to life" Saturday at Ford Island in a rare ship-commissioning here that's been made all the more important because it celebrates a local man of Chinese, Hawaiian and English heritage who became a hero of World War II and retired as a rear admiral.

Born in Honolulu in 1910, Chung-Hoon went to Punahou and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1934. The son of a treasurer for the territory of Hawai'i, Chung-Hoon was state director of agriculture and conservation during Gov. William F. Quinn's administration.

Besides Saturday's commissioning with 3,500 invited guests, about 500 people are expected for commanding officer Cmdr. Kenneth L. Williams Jr.'s reception tomorrow on the battleship USS Missouri, and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce is holding a reception for 600 crew and families on Sept. 26 in Chinatown.

Williams, who accepted some old photos and other Sigsbee mementos from the veterans, told the group: "You went many thousands of miles through your journey in a very trying time in very dangerous waters. We've only gone 7,513 miles, but these young men and women of Chung-Hoon have a better appreciation of what it takes to go to sea."

Green, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., and is president of the USS Sigsbee reunion group, will be remembering his former ship and its strict but fair skipper.

"If you have a man you not only acknowledge saved your life by his actions, but you acknowledge that you respect this man and know that he was a brother in arms, it's the greatest thing in the world to have this ship named Chung-Hoon," Green said.

The cruiser Lake Erie and destroyer O'Kane also were commissioned in Hawai'i — the O'Kane most recently in 1999.