Described by a shipmate as "like a bull" who couldn't be stopped, John McCloy (1876-1945) has the distinction of being one of the few men in the nation's history to earn two Medals of Honor for separate acts of heroism.
McCloy retired from active duty in 1928 after a thirty-year career in the Navy and "a lifetime of service on all the seven seas," as the Kansas City Star put it. His service record notes that in 1942 he was advanced on the retired list to lieutenant commander after being "specially commended by the Secretary of the Navy for performance of duty in actual combat." McCloy died in 1945. In 1963, the Navy commissioned a destroyer escort, USS McCloy (DE-1038), which was named in his honor.