About: USS John M. Howard (IX-75)

USS John M. Howard (IX-75), previously the yacht Elsie Fenimore, was an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for John Martin Howard. Ensign Howard, USNR, had graduated from the third class at the Advanced Mine School, later Mine Disposal School, and been sent to England to observe and gain experience with Royal Navy and Royal Engineers in mine disarming and disposal. He had been the first Navy mine disposal person killed when, on 11 June 1942, he was observing Lcdr. Roy Berryman Edwards, RN, DSO, BEM defusing a German TMA-1 magnetic influence naval mine that detonated on Corton sands near Lowestoft. The detonation left nothing but scatted debris from sea to cliffs and two hundred yards in each direction along the beach.