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The second of the FARRAGUTs built at the New
York Naval Shipyard was launched on January 23, 1935 and commissioned
the following June. USS DALE was named for Capt. Richard Dale who, as a
young lieutenant, had served under John Paul Jones during the epic
battle between Jones’ BON HOMME RICHARD and the British frigate SERAPIS
during the American Revolution. The new destroyer would be the fourth to
bear the name.
Most destroyers in the pre-World War II
years participated in essentially the same round of exercises. DALE was
no exception. Working up in the Atlantic, DD-353 visited the usual ports
in the Caribbean and along the Gulf Coast. She had the honor of
escorting President Franklin D. Roosevelt on his cruise to the Bahamas
before receiving her new assignment, service with the Pacific Fleet with
the rest of the FARRAGUTs.
Like her sisters, DALE was moored to a
destroyer tender in East Loch when Japanese aircraft attacked the
Pacific Fleet anchorage on December 7, 1941. The ranking officer aboard
the destroyer, an ensign, succeeded in getting the tin can underway and
maintained a patrol station off the harbor entrance while what remained
of the fleet prepared to respond to the Japanese attack. Her accurate
anti-aircraft fire accounted for at least one of the attackers.
In the months that followed, DALE
screened the large carriers LEXINGTON (CV-2) and YORKTOWN (CV-5) in
swift strikes around New Guinea. Subsequently, DD-353 returned to Pearl
Harbor for training and, later, to Mare Island for an overhaul. Ready in
time for the Midway campaign, the tin can screened the support and
replenishment forces the strike force relied upon.
Weeks later, DALE was reassigned to RADM
"Sock" McMorris' Task Force MIKE in the Aleutians. The plan
was to force the Japanese out of the Alaskan chain by cutting the supply
lines of the island garrisons. As TF MIKE moved west, a strong Japanese
force moved east, the confusing battle of the Komandorski Islands
ensued. In the four furious hours in the Northern Pacific, DALE and the
other vessels of Task Force MIKE took on three Japanese cruisers many
times their own size. Intimidated, the Japanese withdrew. In Tokyo, the
decision was made to withdraw forces from the Aleutians.
By mid-1944, DALE was once again in the
Central Pacific, screening carriers on their way to blast Kwajalein,
Eniwetok, Palau, Yap, and Ulithi, followed by quick strikes at the
Imperial Japanese fleet base at Truk. Reassigned to the famous Task
Force 38, DALE involved in the classic sea battles that sealed the
Imperial Empire's fate. The tin can helped defend her charges at the
battle of the Philippine Sea, steamed deep into enemy waters to attack
the coast of China, Formosa and the coast of the Japanese home islands
themselves.
The Japanese cease-fire found DALE
anchored at Guam. The destroyer convoyed one last group of ships, then
returned to the East Coast of the United States. Like many of her
sisters she was decommissioned at the same shipyard where she was built;
her commissioning pennant came down for the last time on October 16,
1945 and she was sold for scrapping in December of 1946.
DALE earned twelve battle stars for her
operations in World War II.
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