Sargent Shriver’s Century of Service

Sargent Shriver during World War II (Photo credit: VF)

14 November 1942, 11:30 p.m.

Amid the din of screaming shells and blasting artillery, Lt. Sargent Shriver’s headphones fell silent as blackness swallowed the battleship. He ordered his men in the forward starboard gun turrets to cease fire.

Plunged into darkness by a loss of electrical power, the USS South Dakota drifted, blind, for what felt like eons. No searchlights, no…