USS Stafford
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| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Stafford |
| Namesake | Richard Y. Stafford |
| Builder | Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, Texas |
| Laid down | 29 November 1943 |
| Launched | 11 January 1944 |
| Commissioned | 19 April 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 16 May 1946 |
| Stricken | 15 March 1972 |
| Fate | Sold for scrapping, 13 June 1973 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | John C. Butler-class destroyer escort |
| Displacement | 1,350 tons |
| Length | 306 ft (93 m) |
| Beam | 36 ft 8 in (11.18 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 5 in (2.87 m) |
| Propulsion | 2 boilers, 2 geared turbine engines, 12,000 shp (8,900 kW); 2 propellers |
| Speed | 24 knots (44 km/h) |
| Range | 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) |
| Complement | 14 officers, 201 enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USS Stafford (DE-411) was a
Battle of Guadalcanal
.
Stafford's keel was laid down on 29 November 1943 at Houston, Texas, by Brown Shipbuilding. The ship was launched on 11 January 1944, sponsored by Miss Flora Stafford; and commissioned on 19 April 1944.
History
Upon completion of fitting out in the
Charlestown, Massachusetts. She underwent post-shakedown overhaul at the Boston Navy Yard from 13 to 22 June. The next day, she headed south and moored at Norfolk, Virginia
, two days later.
On the afternoon of 27 June, Stafford joined La Prade and
Pacific Fleet for duty and sailed for San Diego. Following repairs at the Destroyer Repair Base there, she got underway with La Prade for Hawaii and reached Pearl Harbor on 25 July. For almost a month, she engaged in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training in the Hawaiian Islands
.
On 18 August, Stafford and
Kwajalein on 25 August, and Stafford escorted SS Coast Skipper to Majuro the following day. On 29 August, she joined Dionne in the screen of Thetis Bay. The three warships made Pearl Harbor on 3 September, and the destroyer escort operated out of that base for just under two months. During that time, she joined in several anti-submarine warfare exercises. On 31 October, she departed Pearl Harbor with Task Group (TG) 12.3 to find and destroy an enemy submarine known to be prowling the sea lanes between Hawaii and the West Coast. Over the following two weeks, the task group made several contacts, attacked them with depth charges
, but failed to locate and sink the elusive enemy. On 14 November, the task group received word that another unit had sunk its quarry; and it was ordered back to Pearl, where it arrived on 19 November.
Five days later, Stafford departed Pearl as an element of TG 12.4, bound for the central and western Pacific. The task group reached
Kossol Passage in the Palaus. The task group made an anti-submarine sweep 60 miles (97 km) in radius around Peleliu before heading for Ulithi, where it arrived on 22 December. On 28 December, the group, redesignated TU 77.4.13, exited the lagoon
and returned to the Palaus the following day.
On
escort aircraft carrier had to be finished off by American torpedoes. By 5 January, the Japanese had determined that TF 77 was headed for Lingayen; and they intensified their air attacks accordingly. Late that afternoon, the task force, located just northwest of Manila Bay
, came under moderately heavy kamikaze attacks.
At 1747, eight Japanese planes, probably
anti-aircraft
batteries to bear and opened fire at targets approximately 8,000 yards (7,300 m) away. At about the same point, four of the enemies peeled off to the right. The remaining four bore down on the carrier and her three protectors. Each of the escorts splashed a plane, but the fourth kamikaze crashed into Stafford's starboard side, amidships, just abaft the stack. The stricken destroyer escort lost way rapidly, and she began taking on water. All crew members, save a nucleus crew, were transferred to Ulvert M. Moore; and all topside depth charges, K guns, and loading machines were jettisoned to improve her stability. Stafford remained in the vicinity of Lingayen until 11 January, when, after receiving the rest of her crew, save casualties, she departed with a slow convoy for Leyte.
She arrived at
Okinawa
.
Stafford arrived off the
Ryukyus
. She served on antisubmarine screen station, and her only scrape with the enemy occurred on 27 July when she evaded an airdropped torpedo.
Two months after her arrival in the Ryukyus, the fighting ended. Stafford continued anti-submarine patrols until 14 September, then rendezvoused with
Wakayama, and Yokosuka
until November.
Stafford got underway from Yokosuka on 4 November, stopped in Pearl Harbor on the night of 13 and 14 November, and then continued on to San Francisco. On 22 November, she joined
19th Fleet, at San Pedro Bay, for duty pending inactivation. Stafford began inactivation overhaul at Standard Shipbuilding Corporation, San Pedro, Los Angeles
, on 3 January 1946.
Fate
In January 1947, she was decommissioned and joined the
National Metal and Steel Corporation, Terminal Island, Los Angeles
, California, for scrapping.
Honors
Stafford earned two battle stars during World War II.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
