Ships
- USS Hopewell (DD-681) Captain, 25 September 1944 – 9 June 1945
Warner S. Rodimon was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, on 17 September 1907. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1929 and was commissioned in the United States Navy. By the early months of the Second World War he was a lieutenant commander.
He took part in the Allied landings in North Africa and then went to the Pacific. On 25 September 1944 he became captain of the Fletcher-class destroyer Hopewell. The ship had already seen fighting that year, from the Marshall Islands onward. His command covered the Philippine campaign.
In the last part of October 1944 Hopewell joined the Leyte operation. In December she took part in the Mindoro landings. In January 1945 she was with the invasion force in Lingayen Gulf, on the shore of Luzon.
On 14 February 1945 Hopewell bombarded Corregidor and used her guns against obstructions in Mariveles Harbor. Japanese shore batteries hit a minesweeper in the channel. Rodimon took the destroyer in to recover survivors and engaged five enemy batteries, silencing several of them, while his own ship was under heavy fire. Four shells struck Hopewell and knocked out the main battery control station. Seventeen men were casualties, eight of them killed. The ship stayed in Manila Bay until 18 February, then sailed to Manus for repairs. For that day he received the Silver Star. The citation recorded him as a commander at the time of the action and praised his conduct as commanding officer.
He remained in Hopewell until 9 June 1945. On 30 March 1945, during that command, he was advanced to temporary captain. He also received the Bronze Star with Combat V. His campaign medals marked the North African landings and his Pacific service.
By 1947 he was a captain in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington. On 6 September 1947 he married Dutro Harrison Van Meter, widow of Lieutenant Robert E. Van Meter and daughter of Hugh Thornton Harrison of Richmond, Virginia. His parents were Walter S. Rodimon and Esther Warner Rodimon of Northampton, and his brother, Clark Caillat Rodimon, stood as best man. He saw combat again in the Korean War. He retired as a rear admiral and died on 15 June 2005.