Ships
- USS Sproston (DD-577) Captain, 14 October 1943 – 6 February 1945
Michael Joseph Luosey was born in Bangor, Maine, in April 1912. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1933 and was commissioned an ensign on 1 June 1933. He became a lieutenant (junior grade) on 1 June 1936 and a lieutenant on 1 September 1940. On 1 October 1942 he was made a temporary lieutenant commander.
On 14 October 1943 he took command of USS Sproston (DD-577). He relieved Fred Russell Stickney, who had been captain since the ship was commissioned on 19 May 1943. Sproston was a Fletcher-class destroyer built by Consolidated Steel at Orange, Texas. Her keel was laid on 1 April 1942, and she was launched on 31 August 1942. Luosey came aboard less than five months after she entered service.
He remained captain of Sproston until 6 February 1945. On 1 January 1944, while still in command, he was promoted to temporary commander. The tour covered the long middle of the Pacific war. On 6 February 1945 he was relieved by Robert John Esslinger. Robert Duane Karl later commanded Sproston from 2 November 1945 until she was decommissioned at San Diego on 18 January 1946.
His next ship was the new destroyer USS Bordelon (DD-881). He took command on 5 June 1945 and remained until February 1947. That span carried the ship through the surrender of Japan and the first year and a half of peacetime duty.
After North Korea invaded the south in the summer of 1950, Commander Luosey was at Pusan. On 9 July 1950 he was placed in operational charge of the Republic of Korea Navy during its commander’s absence, and he served as deputy commander of those forces until 1 June 1952. He was also Commander, Fleet Activities, Pusan, and senior naval advisor to the Republic of Korea Navy. From 3 November 1950 into June 1952 he commanded the Korean warships assigned to the United Nations Blockading and Escort Force, as commander of Task Group 95.7.
At Pusan he kept the port working with thin resources during the first hard months of the war, when it had to support the United States Army and the Korean forces. For his leadership of Fleet Activities, Pusan, from 3 November through 31 December 1950, and for command of Task Group 95.7 from 3 November 1950 into June 1952, he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. The award was given in the rank of captain for service he had performed as a commander. He also received the Legion of Merit, with a Gold Star in lieu of a second award, for duty from 12 September 1950 to 3 March 1952 as commander of the fleet activities at Pusan, as commander of Republic of Korea naval forces, and as senior advisor to that navy. The Army awarded him the Legion of Merit for service in Korea from 1 March to 30 June 1951. Luosey retired from the Navy as a captain. He died in Augusta, Maine, on 29 June 1998.