Fast Ships in Harm's Way: 100 Years of 'Tin Cans'
8/14/2002
By Chief Journalist Bill Johnson-Miles
(This is part one of a three part series commemorating the 100th anniversary of
destroyers in the U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON
(NNS) -- The history of the destroyer is the story of rugged Sailors and their
gallant ships in foaming seas making haste to go in harm’s way. But the story
isn’t just about these “Greyhounds of the Sea,” it’s also about the
“Tin Can” Sailors who have manned destroyers for a hundred years.
“Throughout
the years, destroyermen have been a proud breed,” said retired Adm. Arleigh
Burke in the 1962 book "Destroyer -– 60 Years." “They have
achieved distinction and the respect of their fellow Sailors through their
performance and their ability to do anything asked of them. No task has been too
difficult for them to tackle. They have plunged into each new requirement with
the zest of an arduous and dedicated advocate. Through a combination of such
advocacy, enthusiasm, hard work, and ability, destroyermen have carried on the
tradition of seafaring men that has been a characteristic of Americans since the
inception of this great nation.”
Burke,
who passed away in 1996, was Chief of Naval Operations, but he is probably
better known as the commodore of the “Little Beavers,” the eight ships of
Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 23, which “fought their tails off” in the
Solomons campaign during World War II.
In
November 1943, from the bridge of his flagship USS Charles Ausburne (DD 570),
Burke led several successful attacks against many Japanese warships. During that
one month, the ships of DESRON 23 sank one enemy cruiser, nine destroyers, one
submarine and several small vessels, and shot down 30 planes. For nine months
they battled their way up the Solomons leaving a trail of destruction.
Achievements
like this fill the U.S. Navy’s destroyer history books, a history that began
in 1902 with the commissioning of 11 torpedo boat destroyers. The first of these
ships to be commissioned was USS Decatur (Torpedo-Boat Destroyer No. 5), on May
19, but the honor of being the first American destroyer is usually given to USS
Bainbridge (Torpedo-Boat Destroyer No. 1), which the Navy commissioned on Nov.
24. By the end of 1911 there were 36 destroyers in the fleet, and by World War I
there would be many more.
Within
a month after the U.S. entered World War I, six destroyers rushed from Boston to
Queenstown, Ireland, to help the British stop the German U-boats (submarines).
They arrived on May 4, 1917, and immediately Vice Adm. Sir Lewis Bayly of the
Royal Navy, thinking the Americans may need days or even weeks in which to train
or perhaps put their ships through overhaul, asked the dreaded question, “How
soon will you be ready to go out on patrol?”
The
commander of the U.S. destroyers, Cmdr. J.K. Taussig, gave the historic reply,
“We are ready now, sir!”
The
six destroyers immediately went on patrol, and before the war ended, the U.S.
destroyer force in European waters expanded to 80 ships. They did an outstanding
job, tangling with U-boats in 250 actions while only losing one destroyer, USS
Jacob Jones (DD 61), and 64 members of the ship’s crew. Destroyers also
guarded the transatlantic crossings of two million men, without the loss of a
single life or a single transport ship.
World
War II and beyond
The
next world war resulted in the loss of many more destroyers, 71 according to the
1996 book "Blood on the Sea" by Robert Parkin. But the Navy lost more
then just ships, as Tin Can crew members made up a good portion of the 37,000
American Sailors who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II.
Most
of those Sailors and ships were lost to suicidal plane attacks called kamikazes.
During the U.S. invasion of Okinawa in 1945, 150 destroyers and destroyer
escorts (DEs) stationed themselves in a vast ring around the island, a picket
line to protect Americans from the attacking Japanese air strength. On April 6,
“the full mad hurricane force of the ‘divine wind’ broke over the
destroyer ring like flame and rock bursting from the crater of an erupting
volcano,” said Capt. William Schofield, author of "Destroyers -– 60
Years."
By
the time the U.S. finished taking the island in late June, the inferno of
Japanese kamikazes, mines, submarines and shellfire sent 13 DDs and two DEs to
the bottom of the sea and damaged 118 others, including USS Kidd (DD 661). A
member of the crew, Joseph Mahoney, remembered the kamikaze attack.
“It
is probably the most eerie and unnerving form of warfare mankind has ever
inflicted on itself,” Mahoney told the Louisiana Naval War Memorial in Baton
Rouge, where Kidd now sits as a memorial ship. “...You hear droning from the
loudspeaker, ‘Air attack is imminent,’ and then, ‘Bogies sighted 35 miles
north and closing.’ Next, the waiting and the thinking, ‘Thirty-five miles
is a long way off. Don't kid yourself; it's only minutes away -- perhaps the
last minutes of your life. I'm not ready, too much I haven't done yet.’ ...
‘(loudspeaker) Target sighted, position four o'clock low on water. Prepare to
fire. Mark!’ Then explosions! Fire! Deafening noise! Acrid odors! Commands
screamed! ‘How long can this go on? I can't breathe! Teeth hurt from grinding;
fingers ache from gripping!’ And then it is over -- for this time. ‘Ah, I am
alive; I am untouched. This is not me; I am not here. This is not happening to
me!’”
The
destroyers did hold their line under these attacks of incredible fury,
protecting U.S. Marines and soldiers on Okinawa. At the high cost of men and
ships, they came through with glory; they won their victory. Destroyer victories
in the Pacific during World War II greatly outnumber the losses, but the
victories didn’t come easy for the Sailors manning those ships.
“We
have been up at GQ [general quarters] six nights out of the past week,” wrote
Donald Vick in his diary on Oct. 3, 1943. “The only sleep I get is about three
or four hours in the day.”
Vick,
a Radioman Third Class aboard Burke’s Charles Ausburne, manned one of the 20mm
antiaircraft guns during GQ. On Nov. 4 he wrote: “We got two near bomb hits
that threw shrapnel on our fantail and dented the bulkheads. Two full nights of
murderous hell with no sleep, very little food, but who gives a damn, eight men
were hit on our fantail.”
Vick
passed away in 1998. His daughter, Nancy Faulk, shared her feelings about her
father and those he served with.
“I
feel proud,” said Faulk. “I feel humble. I feel astonished by what they did
and how they did it. I feel thankful for the freedom they secured.”
Not
only did destroyers fight for freedom in the Pacific, they also made a
difference in the Atlantic, especially during D-Day on June 6, 1944. Late
morning found the U.S. Army pinned down on Omaha beach with more than 1,000
casualties. Seeing this, Navy destroyers moved in close to the beach. Dodging
return fire, and sometimes scraping bottom, these ships blasted one German
position after another and enabled the American soldiers to move inland.
In
testament to these Navy destroyers, Maj. Gen. L.T. Gerow, the U.S. commander on
Omaha Beach, sent a message to the operation’s commander, Gen. Omar Bradley,
stating, "Thank God for the United States Navy.”
Destroyers
in The Korean War, Vietnam and today
There’s
hardly any comparison between World War II and the Korean War for the U.S. Navy
and its destroyers. In the entire conflict, the Navy only lost five ships, none
of them destroyers. Coastal gunfire and mines did damage 73 ships, including 48
DDs and DEs, mostly minor damage in gunfire duels with shore batteries.
While
handling these types of threats, destroyers carried out critical missions during
the Korean War. They assisted in minesweeping operations, shore bombardment
actions, amphibious landings and evacuations. They screened carriers and rescued
downed Navy pilots. And they demolished countless shore targets, including gun
emplacements, tank columns, troop concentrations, bridges, highways, railroads
and trains. Destroyers also did a lot of the same kind of work during the
Vietnam War.
“We
spent most of our time in the Tonkin Gulf at Yankee Station and all along the
Vietnam coast north of Dan Nang,” said Rick Broadhead, a former USS Bausell
(DD 845) Fire Control Technician. “Our missions included shelling enemy
positions, plane guard duty with the carriers and rescue ship station far to the
north in the Tonkin Gulf. Our days and nights were spent interdicting coastal
shipping and destroying enemy supply vessels. Our northern operations included
refueling Sea King ‘choppers’ sent on rescue missions for downed pilots in
the vicinity of Hanoi and disrupting VC [Vietcong] supply routes to the south.
Most patrols involved well over 30 days on station nonstop and this 'Greyhound
of the fleet' had some holes put in her by hostile gunfire.”
Edwin
Finney also served in the Vietnam War, as an officer aboard USS Waldron (DD 699)
from 1967 to 1969. He’s not the first destroyerman in his family; his father
commanded USS Harlan R. Dickson (DD 708) from 1951 to 1953.
“I
certainly feel proud to have been a destroyerman and be a ‘card carrying
member’ of Tin Can Sailors,” said Finney, who works in the photographic
section of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. “I think this came
about quite naturally growing up in a Navy family with my father, my uncle Earl
and my grandfather all having been surface line officers.... It may sound silly,
but in high school I kept an eight by 10 black and white glossy photo of DD 708
steaming at high speed with ‘a bone in her teeth’ taped up in my locker. I
got what I wanted -- service in an old but good destroyer!”
Old
and new destroyers have been in a number of actions since the Vietnam War. In
the 80s, four destroyers took out a pair of Iranian command and control
platforms in the Arabian Gulf after Iran attacked a reflagged Kuwait
supertanker. During Operation Desert Storm, they launched Tomahawk land-attack
cruise missiles into Iraq, and destroyers did the same into Yugoslavia and
Afghanistan in more recent actions.
Today,
Tin Can Sailors search merchant ships for military contraband, help to enforce
the “no fly” zone over Iraq, evacuate American citizens from dangerous
situations abroad and provide humanitarian aid to nations that have endured
natural disasters. Also, today's Tin Can Sailors are both male and female.
“Growing
up I heard a lot about Tin Can Sailors from my dad who was a World War II
Sailor,” said Senior Chief Boatswain's Mate (SW) Juanita Rozar of USS Bulkeley
(DDG 84). “When I first came in the Navy in 1981 I was told by the ‘salty
old boatswain’s mates’ there was no way women would ever be allowed to sail
[aboard] destroyers.”
In
1995 the Navy opened up destroyers to women, and the day after the message came
out Rozar asked her detailer for a billet. The Navy put her into the “Women at
Sea” program and she became one of the first women to serve aboard a
destroyer.
“I
checked aboard USS Barry (DDG 52) on April 5, 1996, said Rozar. “It’s one of
the proudest days of my career. The second proudest day was the commissioning of
Bulkeley.... Both ships have been the highlight of my career and both carry my
fondest memories....”
Bulkeley
is one of 54 destroyers currently in the Navy’s active fleet, much less than
its high of 377 Tin Cans in 1945. More than 1,000 destroyers have sailed the
world’s oceans and seas in the vessel’s century-long history.
“It
is important to remember the history of the destroyer because of all the long
days, blood, sweat and tears spent on the work horse of the fleet,” said
Lt.j.g. Dwight Davis of USS Hopper (DDG 70). “Many destroyers have been spent
defending the constitution of the United States, and especially on the 100th
anniversary of the destroyer, we should take time to remember the dedicated
service of the ship and even more, the crews who served on them.”
“Earning
the title ‘destroyerman’ is accompanied with a long history of strength and
stability as the name itself sounds,” said Fire Controlman Second Class (SW)
Kenneth Ryan of USS O’Brien (DD 975). “The opportunity to be directly
associated with this history is an honor.... Destroyers have engraved their
signatures in history books and continue to be an ever-present asset in creating
history. Remembering their toll in history is important, but I feel equal or
more impressive feats are still yet to come.”
“Destroyermen
have established enviable records of achievement,” stated Burke. “And they
are still steaming toward unknown horizons where developments of the future wait
for discovery.”