Crowder

Lieutenant Crowder served on the USS Ericsson during the Great War. His battle station was the depth-charge launcher at the stern of the destroyer. It was a new gadget and he was quite enthusiastic about it. His immediate subordinate, P.O. Carl Sturtevant, viewed it with more skepticism.

In late 1916, the Ericsson was attacked by torpedo by the submersible CSS Snook. The Ericsson turned towards the submersible and the one torpedo it launched missed. The Ericsson was quickly in an ideal position to counter-attack. Lt. Crowder directed the operations of the launcher firing three depth-charges. The Snook was damaged and forced to surface. Crowder ordered George Enos at the one-pounder near by to fire on the Snook's crew as they rushed for the deck gun. They surrendered but just before they were taken off the boat, her captain Ralph Briggs managed to scuttle her.

Enos recognized Briggs, as he had been involved in his previous capture. Briggs admitted he managed to escape from the POW camp and Sturtevant wanted to throw him overboard to prevent him from doing it again. Enos spoke up in support of Briggs and Crowder decided to keep him alive and a POW since they would have had to kill the rest of the Snook's crew to keep it quiet.