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Launched in the Boston
Navy Yard on 16 April 1942, the FULLAM was commissioned on 2 March 1943.
Following escort duty on the East Coast, she went on to San Diego in
June 1943. Continuing to Pearl Harbor, she became the flagship of
Destroyer Squadron 45, which included the GUEST (DD-472), BENNETT
(DD-473), HUDSON (DD-475), HALFORD (DD-480), TERRY (DD-513), ANTHONY
(DD-515), WADSWORTH (DD-516), and BRAINE (DD-630). By August, she was in
the Solomons for patrol and escort duty. In November, she covered the
landings on Cape Torokina, and escorted convoys carrying reinforcements
and supplies to Bougainville. She then moved forward on the night of
28-29 November to cover the withdrawal of a marine parachute battalion
from a beachhead near Cape Torokina. In another night action on 3
December, her gunners shot down a twin-engine enemy bomber and assisted
in downing another.
Her guns joined the
bombardment of enemy installations during the landings at Empress
Augusta Bay, Bougainville, on 25 January 1944. Four days later at Villa
Lavella, the FULLAM screened transports carrying a New Zealand Raider
Battalion and American sailors for a reconnaissance raid on Green Island
in the Solomons on 30 January. The FULLAM was back again in mid-February
with Task Unit 31.5.2 to cover the New Zealanders when they seized and
occupied the island. Later that month, she was with Destroyer Division
89 when it made its unprecedented anti-shipping sweep north toward Truk
and into enemy territory. In March, she served with Task Unit 31.2.1 as
a screening vessel for transports and landing craft during the Emirau
landings. She operated in the Buka Passage in April forcing two enemy
barges aground and screening minelayers. In June she joined the Fifth
Fleet for the assault on the Marianas. She arrived off Tinian on 12 June
for bombardment of that island and moved on to Saipan. She then covered
the landings on the 15th. She rejoined the carrier task force on 19 June
as the Battle of the Philippine Sea began. In that action, the FULLAM
shot down two enemy planes and assisted in splashing two more. Back off
Saipan on 6 July, she and the HUDSON shot down an enemy patrol plane.
The month ended with her guns pounding targets on Guam.
After training at
Guadalcanal, the FULLAM was en route for the assault on the Palau
Islands when, at 0451 on 12 September, she collided with the NOA
(APD-24), which sank stern first six hours after the collision. Despite
considerable damage, the destroyer not only took off all of the NOA’s
crew, transferred them to other ships, and carried out her daily shore
bombardment and nightly harassing fire, but covered underwater
demolition teams working off Peleliu.
Repairs and a return to
the U.S. took her into January 1945 when she returned to the Western
Pacific for picket duty off Pagan Island. She sailed for Saipan on 15
February to join a task group for the assault on Iwo Jima. She was off
the coast of Iwo on 16 February to serve as screen and fire support ship
during the assault and bitter fighting ashore. When she left on 28
February, she had expended 4,558 rounds of 5-inch ammunition.
Beginning on 1 April,
the FULLAM was off Okinawa, screening carriers and patrolling for enemy
submarines and aircraft. Her group then went on to bombard the airfields
on Sakashima Gunto from which kamikaze flights were launched. During the
afternoon and evening of 4 May 1945, four kamikazes attacked the carrier
SANGAMON (CVE-26) and her escorts, the FULLAM and DENNIS (DE-405). One
plane missed, two were shot down, but a fourth succeeded in crashing on
the flight deck of the SANGAMON. Rescue operations were directed by the
commander of Destroyer Squadron 45 aboard the FULLAM. When the fires on
the carrier were extinguished, the FULLAM and DENNIS escorted her to
safety. The FULLAM went on to antisubmarine patrol and fire support off
Hagushi Beach. She sailed from Okinawa on 1 July to escort landing craft
to Guam and an escort carrier from Guam to Eniwetok. Following repairs
and upkeep at Eniwetok the FULLAM headed for the Aleutians. She was en
route when the war ended. She took up escort and patrol duties in the
Aleutians until she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 13
November 1945. She steamed south to San Diego in March 1946 and was
decommissioned on 15 January 1947. In June 1959, the FULLAM was assigned
to Norfolk Virginia, where she was used as a target for weapons tests
and other experiments which left her radioactive. She was stricken from
the navy’s list on 1 June 1962. According to naval records, the “FULLAM
sank at 0715 after resisting nobly the combined effects of Bullpup
missiles and surface fire from five and eight-inch guns.” |
