New Coast Guard cutter named for a reluctant Long Island hero

Clarence Sutphin didn’t talk much about his time in the Coast Guard during World War II.

The father of five, who grew up in Valley Stream, never spoke about risking his life to save the crew of a boat under heavy enemy fire during the Battle of Saipan, or coming to the aid of eight Marines hit by a mortar round — bravery that earned him a Bronze Star.

Sutphin’s children knew next to nothing about his time in battle until they received a phone call two years ago from a Coast Guard captain who told them of plans to name a new fast-response cutter after their father.

“It’s a shock. We had no idea of the things that he did,” said Mona Rossero, of Northport, the eldest daughter of Sutphin, who died in 1992 at age 68. “It’s hard to believe because he was just so private about all of the things that went on.”

United States Coast Guard Cutter Clarence Sutphin Jr. will be officially commissioned next Thursday at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in Manhattan. The commissioning will be the city’s first in more than 10 years. 

The 154-foot Sentinel Class cutter will be deployed with the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet out of Bahrain, officials said.

Brian Sutphin recalled finding his father's foot locker in the attic when he was 11. Inside were some newspaper clippings with his father's picture, photographs of him in uniform and the Bronze Star.

"I showed it to him and asked him what it was all about and he just dismissed it. He said it was 'just something from the war,'" Sutphin said. "And that was the end of the discussion … There was definitely some humility there."

Sutphin, who later moved his family to Huntington, was a standout athlete at Valley Stream Central High School, playing football, baseball and competing on the wrestling team. He was also a proficient deckhand on fishing and pleasure boats growing up — experience that would serve him well in his military career.

In November 1941, just weeks before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an 18-year-old Sutphin enlisted in the Coast Guard as a petty officer first class

By the end of the war, he was a decorated war hero and battle-tested landing craft operator.

In May 1942, Sutphin was assigned to the USS Leonard Wood, a Coast Guard landing craft supporting American troops in North Africa, Sicily and the Pacific theater that saw action in some of the war’s bloodiest amphibious operations.

During the June 15, 1944 Battle of Saipan in the Mariana Islands — often referred to as Pacific D-Day — Sutphin helped oversee boat operations including landing, loading and salvaging other ships under heavy enemy mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire.

Sutphin repeatedly risked his life during the conflict to save others, according to a profile of him on the website of the New York Council Navy League of the United States. Often that meant running back and forth to the beaches, amid stiff enemy resistance, to help land troops, deliver ammunition, food, blood and medical supplies, states the profile under the headline, "GET TO KNOW THIS ENLISTED HERO."

Sutphin's heroics also included swimming a towline to a landing craft stranded on a reef and targeted by mortar fire, with five Americans trapped on board, according to an account by William Thiesen, the Coast Guard's Atlantic area historian. Sutphin later rescued another boat stuck on the beach that was targeted by Japanese artillery, coming to the aid of eight injured Marines, all while dodging mortar rounds and sniper fire, Thiesen wrote.

After two days, the Leonard Wood left the landing zone to escape an attack by enemy ships and aircraft but returned a week later, dropping the remainder of its cargo and treating 350 wounded troops before heading to friendly shores. Sutphin stayed with the Leonard Wood through 1945, participating in eight major amphibious operations.

Of the roughly 70,000 American troops that landed on the Mariana Islands, about 5,000 were killed and more than 20,000 were wounded. Japan lost 30,000 soldiers, nearly the entire force garrisoned on Saipan.

Rossero said her father returned home, started a family and began a successful career as an insurance executive.

When finally learning of her father's wartime heroics, Rossero said she wasn't surprised.

"We know the kind of person he was. That he would do anything he could to help people out," she said. "If a neighbor needed something or anybody needed anything, he was there all the time. It was his personality. But he never talked about the war so we had no idea.”

Brian Sutphin called the commissioning "an incredible gift" for his family, allowing them to learn more about the humble man who cheered him on at Little League games, took him fishing and was quietly, and with little public adulation, a war hero.

"We've had this opportunity to go back and see this other side of my father," he said, "that we really did not know existed."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.