Aboard the Farragut Class Destroyers in World War II: A History With First-Person Accounts of Enlisted Men

241 Pages·2009·2.06 MB·English

by  Leo Block

Aboard the Farragut
Class Destroyers in
World War II
Aboard the Farragut
Class Destroyers
in World War II
A History with First-Person
Accounts of Enlisted Men
LEO BLOCK
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
FRONTISPIECE: The USS Farragut (DD 348) leading a column
of Farragut class destroyers.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Block, Leo, 1920–
Aboard the Farragut Class destroyers in World War II : a
history with first-person accounts of enlisted men / Leo Block.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4222-5
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. Destroyers (Warships)—United States—History—20th century.
2. World War, 1939–1945—Naval operations, American. 3. United
States. Navy—Sea life. I. Title.
V825.3.B55 2009
940.54'590922—dc22 2009009451
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2009 Leo Block. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Destroyer Squadron Twenty (DesRon 20). Five of the
squadron's ships moored together, circa 1936. The destroyers are (from
left to right): USS Dewey (DD-349), USS Farragut (DD-348), USS
Worden (DD-352), USS Hull (DD-350) and USS Aylwin (DD-355)—U.S.
Naval Historical Center photograph. Metal background ©2008 Shutter-
stock
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To the seven hundred and ninety destroyer sailors
1
lost in the typhoon of 1944. Presently their families,
friends and loved ones cannot visit or bring flowers to
their headstone as the Pacific Ocean is their burial site.
However, in the near future a monument display-
ing the name of every man and his ship is planned for
the Admiral Nimitz War Memorial in Fredericksburg,
Texas.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Farragut class destroyer sailors
who provided narrations for this book. Unfortunately I
received fewer submissions than I expected from the men
I contacted through ship reunions and the Pearl Harbor
Survivors Association. There are just not that many of
us Farragut sailors left. Currently, more than 1,000 World
War II veterans die every day.1
Fortunately some of my contributors notified me of
a book published by Earl Myers titled USS Farragut (DD
348): History of the Ship and Adventures of the Ship’s
Crew—July 1, 1942 thru Decommissioning October 1945.
This book, completed in 2004, includes individual nar-
rations of the sailors that served aboard the USS Farragut
(DD 348) and Earl Myers graciously allowed me to use
all three volumes of his book. The narrations in his book
were not transferred into this book but were used occa-
sionally as sources. Material quoted from Myers’ book
are identified by reference numbers and in the Notes sec-
tion of each chapter the reference numbers cite the names
of the original narrators.
vii
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. The Ship 7
2. The Ship’s Company 19
3. The Dungaree Navy 34
4. The Hawaiian Detachment 53
5. Condition II—Underway 75
6. December 7, 1941 88
7. The South Pacific 112
8. The Aleutians 136
9. The Central Pacific and the Typhoon of December 1944 144
10. The Uniform 158
11. Liberty 170
12. The Farragut Finishing School 188
13. Ship Histories 193
Glossary 205
Chapter Notes 217
Bibliography 223
Index 225
ix