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The U.S. Marine Corps
first aviator, Alfred A. Cunningham was influential in the establishment
and growth of both marine and navy aviation in the early 1900s. His
namesake, DD-752 was launched 3 August 1944 and commissioned 23 November
1944. By May 1945, with the heavy cruiser CHICAGO (CA-136), she was
steaming for Pearl Harbor and from there to the western Pacific with
Task Group 12.4 to screen carriers launching strikes against Wake
Island. from 1 July until the end of hostilities, she served on patrol,
escort, and screening duty around the Ryukyus. She remained in the Far
East, operating off the coast of China in the Yellow and South China
Seas on anti-smuggling patrol between Korea and Japan. The destroyer
returned to the states in March 1946, went into reserve the next year,
and was decommissioned at San Diego in August 1949.
During the build-up of
the fleet following North Korea’s invasion south in late June 1950, the
CUNNINGHAM was recommissioned on 5 October 1950. She was underway for
Korean waters on 2 January 1951. She steamed often with the fast
carriers of Task Force 77, sharing screening and plane guard duties at
various times with destroyers of Destroyer Division 131: the BLUE
(DD-744), FRANK E. EVANS (DD-754), WALKE (DD-723), STICKELL (DD-888),
DUNCAN (DD-874), BRINKLEY BASS (DD-887), ARNOLD J. ISBELL (DD-869),
WILLIAM R. RUSH (DD-714), JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, JR. (DD-850), HAWKINS
(DDR-873), WILTSIE (DD-716), CHEVALIER (DDR-805), HAMNER (DD718),
THEODORE E. CHANDLER (DD-717), JOHN A. BOLE (DD-755), and LOFBERG
(DD-759). She also drilled in air-sea antisubmarine warfare with the
Hunter-Killer Task Group and bombarded North Korea with UN forces and on
gun strikes from the carrier task force.
On 19 September, while
shelling the coastal railroad south of Songjin with the WALKER
(DDE-517), THOMPSON (DMS-38), OSPREY (AMS-28) and HMS CHARITY (D-29),
the CUNNINGHAM was patrolling her sector some 6,000 yards off the beach.
At about 1340, her gunners fired on men working ashore. An hour later,
as the destroyer slowly turned shoreward to fire on workmen at the mouth
of a tunnel, the enemy’s coastal defense guns roared into action. Their
first salvo was a direct hit, tearing into the main deck and starboard
side sending shrapnel through the shield of the 5-inch Mount 51 and
wounding three of its crew. Two air bursts followed in quick succession,
one on either side of the bridge knocking out the SG radar. The shore
guns scored four more direct hits and at least seven air bursts near the
ship in the first two minutes, but as the enemy barrage continued for
another twenty-five minutes, the destroyer returned fire and
successfully moved out of range, avoiding further damage. An assessment
revealed that one of the enemy shells had penetrated the forward fire
room, and shrapnel hit a nearby bulkhead. Another shell struck a depth
charge on the forward K-gun, blowing the charge apart and scattering
burning TNT as far as the fantail. Shrapnel from the hit also set
another depth charge afire and ruptured four others. A fourth shell hit
the after fire room, starboard side, two feet below the main deck and
shrapnel badly damaged the motor whaleboat. The last shell struck but
did not penetrate the after engine room about two feet below the
waterline. As the destroyer sped away with at least one gun mount firing
at all times, damage control parties were at work battling the blaze on
the starboard K-guns. Recommended for the Bronze Star were Ensign
Charles E. Dennis, Chief Torpedoman William J. Bohrman, and
Electrician’s Mate 2d Class Victor J. Leonard who manhandled one burning
depth charge over the side, and GMSN James E. Snider for similar action.
At 1502, the enemy shore batteries ceased firing. With thirteen of the
ship’s crew wounded, mainly by shrapnel, the CUNNINGHAM steered toward
Yang Do Island for medical assistance from HMS CHARITY. After emergency
repairs, the destroyer returned to combat operations and then returned
to Long Beach, California, in late October.
The CUNNINGHAM returned
to the western Pacific in June 1953, serving on patrols off the Korean
coast as part of the ASW screen for the cruiser BREMERTON (CA-130). In
July, they joined the search for the crew of an RD-50 bomber that
crashed in the Sea of Japan. Ensuing years were busy with routine
operations along the West Coast and regular deployments in the Far East
where she participated in festivities for the XVI Olympic Games in
Melbourne; exercises with the Republic of Korea Navy; various gunnery
and ASW exercises; patrols of the Formosa Straits; and screening the
carriers YORKTOWN (CV-10), TICONDEROGA (CV-14), SHANGRI-LA (CVA-38),
HORNET (CVS-12). In 1960, the CUNNINGHAM became a unit of Destroyer
Division 132 and in 1961, underwent a Fleet Rehabilitation and
Modernization (FRAM II) overhaul followed by routine West Coast and Far
Eastern operations. In 1963, she became part of Destroyer Division 232
with the O=BRIEN
(DD-725), EVERSOLE (DD-789), and BENNER (DD-807).
In
October 1965, DD-752 and Destroyer Division 232 joined Task Force 77 for
patrol and surveillance duties of the North Vietnamese coast and in the
Gulf of Tonkin. She was back again in January 1966 on patrol, providing
gunfire support off Quang Ngai, South Vietnam, and on radar picket
station south of Hainan Island. Early in January 1967, the CUNNINGHAM
was in the Gulf of Tonkin as plane guard for the BENNINGTON (CVS-20).
From February to April, she either destroyed or damaged large numbers of
enemy logistics craft off North Vietnam and assisted the CANBERRA
(CAG-2) in pounding enemy supply lines, highways, ferry crossings, shore
batteries, and radar sites. After a stateside overhaul, she was back in
southeast Asia in 1968 for plane guard and search and rescue operations
off the Vietnamese coast. The destroyer was back on duty off Vietnam in
November 1969 providing gunfire support and steaming with the HANCOCK
(CV-19) on Yankee Station. Early in 1970, she was again on Yankee
Station, but this time with the CONSTELLATION (CVA-64) and RANGER
(CVA-61). She said her final good-byes to Vietnam in March 1970 to
return to routine operations in southern California, where on 24
February 1971, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve. Her name
was struck from the navy’s register on 1 February 1974 when she became a
target ship. Her end came when she was hit by five laser-guided bombs
and sank on 12 October 1979 off southern California. |
