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USS DEWEY, the second of the FARRAGUTs, was
built by the Bath Iron Works. The destroyer was named for Commodore
George Dewey, the conqueror of the Spanish Asian squadron at Manila Bay
in the Spanish-American War. She was launched in the summer of 1934 and
commissioned in the fall. Her sponsor, Miss A. M. Dewey, was the
commodore’s great-grandniece. Like FARRAGUT, DEWEY briefly served in
Caribbean operations before being transferred to the Pacific. The
movement could not have been a surprise, given the "longer
legs" of the FARRAGUTs; "four stackers" could serve in
the Atlantic, Pacific operations called for vessels with the FARRAGUTs’
endurance. Home ported at San Diego in the pre-War years, DEWEY served
in a variety of roles during the myriad of fleet exercises in the late
1930s.
During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, DEWEY was tied to USS DOBBIN (AD-3), essentially without power,
yet she succeeded in fighting off attackers both from herself and the
venerable tender and was patrolling off the entrance to the harbor by
mid-afternoon. Eight days later, she sortied, with Task Force 11, to
relieve the Marine forces on Wake Island. The support came too late, and
the gallant destroyer was returned to her patrol assignment off the
Hawaiian Islands by Christmas.
USS DEWEY supported Task Force 11 throughout the next year of operations, helping to slash Japanese
aircraft bent on sinking the group's valuable carriers as the force
struck Rabaul and the Solomons. DD-349's accurate anti-aircraft fire
helped to discourage scores of Japanese attackers in the Battle of the
Coral Sea, but USS LEXINGTON (CV-2) had been badly hurt. USS DEWEY stood
by the stricken flat top, rescuing 112 of her crew. Later in the month,
her firepower screened both USS YORKTOWN (CV-5) AND USS ENTERPRISE
(CV-6) in operations in the area.
DEWEY was given the assignment of protecting the vulnerable oiler PLATTE (AO-24) during the battle of
Midway, then transited to the Guadalcanal area. Her days were seldom
boring; she bombarded Japanese forces during the initial American
landings on the island. Within the month, she was under air attack
herself, bringing down several enemy dive-bombers while suffering from a
bomb hit. She aided USS JARVIS (DD-393) in regaining power after the
attack, and towed the disabled USS GEORGE F. ELLIOT (AP-13) until the
transport’s damage made abandonment necessary. This time, DEWEY
rescued 40 of the transport’s crew.
DD-349s operations in the Solomons neatly
exemplified the various abilities of the new tin cans. She lent her
gunfire more than once both in the shore bombardment role and as
protection against air attack. She successfully shepherded the damaged
USS SARATOGA (CV-3) back to Pearl Harbor after her disastrous encounter
with the Japanese submarine, I-26. She valiantly attempted to tow her
sister, USS WORDEN (DD-352) off the rock pinnacles near Amchitka in the
Aleutians, then rescued WORDEN's survivors when her efforts proved to be
in vain.
DEWEY's operations throughout the
remainder of the war read like a listing of the most momentous actions
in the Pacific. Her guns protected carrier task forces and blasted away
at Japanese defenders on a score of islands. She screened transports at
Guam and protected carriers launching fighter sweeps against Tinian and
Saipan. She rescued pilots, defended oilers, and survived the monstrous
typhoon of December 18, 1944. In mountainous seas and winds gusting well
past the century mark, the destroyer lost all power. Her forward stack
collapsed and she rolled to 78 degrees before righting, but she
weathered the storm and, after repairs at Ulithi, was able to rejoin the
fleet for the final thrust to Okinawa. Her screening expertise allowed
the vital oilers to resupply carrier task forces striking both the last
invasion beach in the Pacific war and essential targets on the East
Asian coast.
Like FARRAGUT, she returned to the
Brooklyn Navy Yard in September and was decommissioned in October.
DD-349 was sold for scrapping on December 20, 1946. USS DEWEY earned
thirteen battle stars for her operations with the Pacific Fleet in World
War II.
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