Lorenzo Sabin

Lorenzo Sherwood Sabin, Jr. (1899–1988) was a career naval officer who rose to become a Vice Admiral and NATO’s Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic.

In particular, he commanded the Gunfire Support, Eleventh Amphibious Force, which was a convoy of more than 250 small craft that he had organized and trained.

Afterwards, he was in charge of the establishment of a Naval Base on the Normandy Coast and the unloading of all ships and craft in his assigned area.

In addition, Sabin was awarded Britain's Distinguished Service Order and the French Croix de Guerre with Gold Star.

During the Korean Conflict, Sabin served on the joint staff of Gen. Mark W. Clark, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army Forces Far East.

In 1954-55’s Operation Passage to Freedom, Sabin led Task Force 90, the naval evacuation of 310,000 people, 7600 vehicles, and 66,000 tons of U.S.-origin military equipment from Communist-controlled North Vietnam to French-backed South Vietnam; these people included Vietnamese civilians and soldiers as well as non-Vietnamese members of the French army.

[5][6][7] A few weeks after the Vietnamese evacuation, Sabin and his crew traveled aboard his flagship, the USS Estes, to the Dachen Islands and became involved in the First Taiwan Strait Crisis.