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The third
ship to be
named for
the intrepid
CDR William
Baker
Cushing, the
Civil War
hero whose
destruction
of the
Confederate
ironclad
ALBEMARLE
marked the
beginning of
the torpedo
boat, was
launched at
Puget Sound
Navy Yard on
December 3l,
1935. She
would be
commissioned
the
following
August.
USS CUSHING
was assigned
to the
Battle Fleet
in the
Pacific and
participated
in the
abortive
search for
Amelia
Earhart, the
woman pilot
who
disappeared
in her
attempt to
fly around
the world.
She was
never found.
In the years
immediately
before World
War II,
CUSHING was
actively
involved in
the variety
of fleet
exercises
and
"problems"
that seemed
to define
the Navy of
the 1930's.
The Japanese
attack on
Pearl Harbor
found
CUSHING
undergoing
an overhaul
at the Mare
Island Navy
Yard.
DD-376 was
immediately
pressed into
service to
screen
convoys and
protect
carriers in
training
exercises
off the
California
coast,
before
proceeding
to the
cauldron
around
Guadalcanal.
CUSHING was
assigned to
Task Force
16,
protecting
USS
ENTERPRISE
(CV-6) in
the climatic
battle of
Santa Cruz
Island. The
group,
accompanied
by TF 17,
with USS
HORNET (CV-
8) faced an
awesome
array of
Japanese
naval
vessels.
Japan
planned a
complex
series of
moves toward
Guadalcanal.
Troops on
the island
were to take
Henderson
Field,
canceling
the "Cactus
Air Force"
that
supported
the American
naval
effort. Five
separate
Japanese
task forces
would
converge on
the island
and blast
the Marine
beachhead
out of
existence.
DD-376's
charges
during the
air battles
that
followed
were able to
fight off
their
attackers;
USS SOUTH
DAKOTA
(BB-57),
also
assigned to
support
ENTERPRISE,
was credited
with
twenty-six
aircraft
shot down
herself. TF
17 was less
fortunate,
HORNET and
USS PORTER
(DD-356)
were lost.
Less than
three weeks
later,
DD-375 was
again facing
an enemy
threat. The
veteran
destroyer
completed a
successful
convoy run,
protecting
transports
bound for
the
embattled
island, when
reconnaissance
forces to
the north
spotted a
force of two
battleships,
a light
cruiser, and
eleven
destroyers
steaming
toward
Guadalcanal.
RADM Daniel
J. Callaghan
arranged his
forces,
eight
destroyers
and five
cruisers, in
a classic
"line
ahead", with
the tin cans
in the van
and rear. At
just before
2:00 AM on
November 13,
1942,
CUSHING
sighted
Japanese
destroyers
crossing her
bow at a
range of
just 3,000
yards. The
destroyer
turned to
unmask her
torpedo
battery and
the fight
was on.
The
resulting
action, in
the dead of
night, was a
confusing
free-for-all.
Almost
before she
knew it,
CUSHING was
in the
middle of
the Japanese
column. She
gamely fired
on several
destroyers
and the
Japanese
battleship
IJN HIEI,
then
launched six
torpedoes at
the huge
battlewagon,
then less
than half a
mile away.
CUSHING had
already
suffered
punishing
hits from
the
destroyers,
but she
turned to
again attack
the
battleship.
HIEI's
skipper,
rattled by
the ferocity
of CUSHING’s
attack, as
well as fire
from other
destroyers
and cruisers
in the area,
slowly
turned from
the attack.
But
CUSHING's
respite
could not
last.
A
searchlight
flashed on
and fire
seemed to
concentrate
on DD-375.
Within
minutes, the
destroyer
lost
headway.
Fires spread
throughout
the ship as
damage
control
parties
fought to
keep the tin
can afloat.
A second
time,
Japanese
searchlights
pinioned the
stricken
CUSHING.
With her
bridge
almost
blasted away
and most of
her guns out
of
operation,
DD-375 was a
floating
wreck. LCDR
E. N.
Parker,
CUSHING's
skipper,
ordered the
ship
abandoned.
Late in the
afternoon,
her
uncontrolled
fires
finally
reached the
ship's
magazines
and the
courageous
destroyer
exploded. In
all,
seventy-two
men were
lost.
USS CUSHING
received
three battle
stars for
her service
in World War
II. |
