Ships
- USS Preston (DD-379) Captain, 31 October 1941 – 14 November 1942
Max Clifford Stormes was born on 27 July 1903 in Big Flats, New York, and grew up in Elmira. He was a student at Elmira Free Academy when Representative Alanson B. Houghton appointed him to the Naval Academy in August 1919. He finished the fall term at the academy, entered the Naval Academy preparatory school that December, and became a midshipman on 15 June 1920 with the Class of 1924.
At Annapolis his classmates called him Max. He sang in the choir throughout his four years and fired with the rifle team, qualifying as an expert rifleman. He graduated on 15 May 1924 and reported to the fleet as an ensign.
His first duty was in the battleship USS Nevada. He later served in the minesweeper USS Chewink and the submarine USS S-33, and through 1929 and 1930 he was assigned to Submarine Division 20. In 1931 and 1932 he returned to the Naval Academy for postgraduate study. After that course he commanded the destroyer USS Talbot, then served as damage control officer in the heavy cruiser USS Chicago.
On 31 October 1941 Stormes took command of the destroyer Preston (DD-379), then serving with the Pacific Fleet. He was a lieutenant commander when the war with Japan began. For the next year he led Preston in fleet operations that carried from the central Pacific into the struggle for the Solomon Islands. On 20 August 1942 the Navy promoted him to commander, and he stayed in command of the ship.
His tour ended in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. On the night of 14 November 1942, Preston was one of the destroyers ahead of Rear Admiral Willis A. Lee's battleships, closing a Japanese force near Savo Island. The enemy formation outnumbered the American destroyers and hit them hard. Shells struck Preston again and again. Stormes kept the ship fighting, and her guns stayed in action against the Japanese ships until fire and flooding overwhelmed her. Preston sank that night, and Stormes was killed in the action.
The Navy Cross was awarded to him after his death for his leadership of Preston off Savo Island. The citation recognized the steady fight he and the crew made under heavy fire, and the damage they inflicted before the ship was lost. In February 1944 the Navy laid down the Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer USS Stormes (DD-780) at Seattle in his honor. He was lost with Preston in the waters off Guadalcanal, and his name is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery.