USS Ward
![]() Ward in dazzle camouflage in 1918 (as DD-139)
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History | |
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Name | Ward |
Namesake | James H. Ward |
Builder | Mare Island Navy Yard |
Laid down | 15 May 1918 |
Launched | 1 June 1918 |
Commissioned | 24 July 1918 |
Decommissioned | 21 July 1921 |
Recommissioned | 15 January 1941 |
Reclassified | High-speed transport, APD-16, 6 February 1943 |
Fate | Sunk by kamikaze[1] 7 December 1944 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Wickes-class destroyer |
Displacement | 1,247 long tons (1,267 t) |
Length | 314 ft 4 in (95.8 m) |
Beam | 30 ft 11 in (9.4 m) |
Draft | 9 ft 10 in (3.0 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
Complement | 231 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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USS Ward was laid down as a 1,247-long-ton (1,267 t)
Design and construction
Ward was named in honor of
Service history
Ward transferred to the Atlantic late in the year and helped support the trans-Atlantic flight of the Curtiss NC flying boats in May 1919. She came back to the Pacific a few months later, and remained there until she was decommissioned in July 1921. She had received the hull number DD-139 in July 1920. The outbreak of World War II in Europe brought Ward back into active service. She was recommissioned in January 1941. Sent to Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter, the destroyer operated on local patrol duties in Hawaiian waters over the next year.
Pearl Harbor
On the morning of 7 December 1941, under the command of
Skepticism whether Ward had really sunk a Japanese mini-sub rather than some sort of
After Pearl Harbor
In 1942, Ward was sent to the West Coast for conversion to a high-speed transport. Redesignated APD-16 in February 1943, she steamed to the South Pacific to operate in the Solomon Islands area. She helped fight off a heavy Japanese air attack off Tulagi on 7 April 1943, and spent most of the rest of that year on escort and transport service. In December, she participated in the Cape Gloucester invasion. During the first nine months of 1944, Ward continued her escort and patrol work and also took part in several Southwest Pacific amphibious landings, among them the assaults on Saidor, Nissan Island, Emirau, Aitape, Biak, Cape Sansapor, and Morotai.
Fate
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/USS_Ward_%28DD-139%29_afire.jpg/225px-USS_Ward_%28DD-139%29_afire.jpg)
As the Pacific War moved closer to Japan, Ward was assigned to assist with operations to recover the
In early December 2017, Ward's wreckage was located by RV Petrel in 686 ft (209 m) of water.[7][8]
In the movie
Awards
- World War I Victory Medal
- American Defense Service Medal with "FLEET" clasp
- battle stars
- World War II Victory Medal
- Philippine Liberation Medal with two stars
Memorial
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/USS_Ward_4_inch_gun_Minnesota_Capitol.jpg/150px-USS_Ward_4_inch_gun_Minnesota_Capitol.jpg)
Ward's number-three
As of 2012, no other ship in the United States Navy has borne this name, although sometimes confusion occurs with the three destroyers named Aaron Ward.
References
- ^ Brown, p. 133
- ISBN 978-0-7864-6429-6. Archived from the originalon May 9, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
- ^ Mare Island History Archived September 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Vallejo Convention & Visitors Bureau website. Accessed 22 August 2007. DANFS states 15 days from keel laying to launch.
- ^ a b Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet (February 15, 1942). "Pearl Harbor Attack: 7 December 1941, Online Action Reports: Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, Serial 0479 of 15 February 1942". Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
- Honolulu Advertiser.
- ^ Wiltshire, John C. (December 20, 2003). "Japanese midget submarine: sunk Dec 7, 1941 – found, Aug 2002: Analysis of Hole in Conning Tower of Midget Sub". Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ^
Christine Hauser (December 8, 2017). "The First Photos of a Pearl Harbor Warship's Watery Grave". New York Times. Archivedfrom the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
It was midmorning on Dec. 1. The team, which included pilots, researchers, historians and officials from the Philippines, watched as images were beamed back to the vessel from a remotely operated submersible vehicle circling a shipwreck at the bottom of Ormoc Bay, about 650 feet below the surface.
- ^ "Wreckage of USS Ward Found in the Philippines". Marine Link. December 7, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
- ^ "USS FINCH (DER 328)" (PDF). USS FINCH Website. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
- Wall Street Journal.
- Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War Two. Arms and Armour, London, Great Britain, 1990. ISBN 0-85368-802-8.
Further reading
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- navsource.org: USS Ward
- UH finds sub that led Pearl Harbor attack Archived May 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine