USS MOALE DD-693

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS MOALE DD-693

The Tin Can Sailor, July 1998

The second ALLEN SUMNER class to be laid down was also constructed at Federal Shipbuilding’s Kearny yard. She was named for Lt. Edward Moale, Jr. who served during the Spanish-American War period both in the waters around Cuba and in the Philippines.

USS MOALE was launched in January 16, 1944 and commissioned just over a month later. Following a shakedown around Bermuda, DD-693 was briefly assigned to training precommissioning crews along the Atlantic coast. By the summer, the new destroyer was off to war as a unit of DesRon 60. Allied forces were approaching the Philippines and the new destroyers, with their more powerful anti-aircraft batteries, were in great demand.

As an element of Task Group 77.2, MOALE found herself at the center of operation around the Philippines. The destroyer alternated between screening fast carriers, protecting invasion fleets, and supporting troops ashore with her superbly accurate gunfire. She participated in the first American raid into the caldron at Ormoc Bay. In an action that had the distinct features of an ambush, three American destroyers found themselves in confined waters, battered by continuous air attacks and the target of Japanese escorts. MOALE would be heavily strafed, loosing two dead and twenty-two wounded in the action.

MOALE, assigned to Task Force 58, participated in some of the more vital actions of the last months of the war. In February, the veteran destroyer found herself in a classic role. As the task force cruised off the coast of Japan, MOALE was called upon to escort two damaged destroyers back to the fleet base at Ulithi. Enroute to the base, MOALE conducted a model “stern chase”. Harrying and finally sinking an armed Japanese merchant man and a small coastal freighter in a manner that brought to mind Horatio Nelson and the great Age of Sail, DD-693 handily eliminated another Japanese attempt to resupply her isolated and starving garrisons. She returned to fleet operations just in time to participate in the invasion of Saipan.

DD-693 was forced from the actions in the Volcano Islands chain by an element far more powerful than even the considerable Japanese presence in the area. Violent winter storms swept the archipelago in February 1945, with forty-foot waves and gale force winds. MOALE sustained serious damage to her deck and forward 5-inch gunhouse. Superior seamanship and damage control kept her afloat and, with the aid of the huge repair yard at Pearl Harbor, the destroyer was able to return to fleet operations in June.

The summer of 1945 found MOALE operating with naval forces off Okinawa. She took her turn on the picket line off the embattled island and contributed both her firepower and her radar-inspired warnings to the defense of the invasion fleet. She also covered minesweeping operations in the area. The surrender that ended World War II found the veteran destroyer preparing for another patrol off the coast of the Japanese “Home Islands.” She would perform that duty, this time as a screening destroyer and a radio beacon ship for occupation forces.

The years immediately after World War II found MOALE serving in a variety of roles in both the Pacific and the Atlantic. She provided security for the Operation “Crossroads” nuclear test at Bikini in 1946, then proceeded, after an extensive overhaul at Bremerton to San Diego to serve as a training ship at the Fleet Sonar School.

For the first time in more than five years, MOALE entered the Atlantic in 1949. Her new homeport would be Norfolk and, like her sisters, she would alternate training operations off the Atlantic coast with cruises in the “Med.” The service was not without excitement.

The Egyptian- Israeli War of 1956 found the veteran destroyer in the eastern Mediterranean, “showing the flag” with the Sixth Fleet to flex American muscle. The very real possibility that the Soviet Union would enter the conflict and escalate a regional dispute into a worldwide conflict was averted.

Like many of her sisters, DD-693 underwent a rebuilding under the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization Program (FRAM). Her modifications, stylized FRAM II, involved extensive rebuilding of the vessel’s super-structure aft of the bridge. A widened deckhouse allowed provision for the DASH remotely controlled helicopters, along with fixed, forward-firing torpedo tubes. Sonar and radar suites were improved and USS MOALE assumed a new role in checkmating the growing threat of Soviet submarines in the Atlantic.

For the next six years, MOALE found herself in a variety of roles. She assisted in the recovery of astronaut M. Scott Carpenter in 1962, then, five months later, helped clamp a “quarantine” around Cuba that forced the Communists to remove nuclear missiles threatening the U.S. from the island. Then, she returned to the Mediterranean to monitor the civil war in Cyprus and, if necessary, evacuate American nationals.

The remaining years of MOALE’s career began with training exercises in the Caribbean. New procedures in shadowing the Soviet subs visiting Cuba had to be refined and perfected and DD-693 provided an ideal training vessel. She became flagship of DESDIV 102 in 1965 and her scores in annual competitions were enviable. It could not last.

MOALE’s increased age proved an impediment, however. With almost twenty years of active duty, the destroyer was beginning to wear out. Longer and longer yard visits proved necessary. By February 1970, the aging destroyer was assigned to the former Brooklyn Navy Yard to serve as a Naval Reserve training vessel. She would shift to the new facilities being prepared at Fort Schuyler (NY). Conditions approached the impossible. Crews labored heroically to keep her operational, and the high marks she received during operations were a tribute to the ability of her deck and engineering divisions to hold the old vessel together. It almost ended in 1972, when recurring electrical problems in her ship’s service generators led the Navy to suggest that, unless her crew could repair the monumental problems themselves, with outside help or money, the ship would be scrapped. The work took weeks of research and long hours of work, but the Engineering Department succeeded in earning DD-693 another two years.

On July 2, 1973, the U.S. Navy decommissioned the veteran destroyer and announced her availability for sale. She was sold for scrapping in 1974.

During her career, USS MOALE earned five battle stars for her service in World War II and one for Korean service.

USS MOALE DD-693 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, December 2015

Moale (DD‑693) was laid down on 5 August 1943 at Kearny, N.J., by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; launched on 16 January 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Edward S. Moale, daughter‑in‑law of the late Lt. Edward Moale, Jr.; and commissioned on 28 February 1944, Cmdr. Walter M. Foster in command.

Following a Bermuda shakedown, Moale remained on the Atlantic coast conducting experimental tests and training precommissioning destroyer crews. On 21 August, she got underway with Destroyer Division 120 for the British West Indies, whence she continued to the Panama Canal Zone, and, thence into the Pacific. Reporting to Commander Destroyers Pacific at Pearl Harbor, on 15 September, she underwent carrier screening, night firing, and shore bombardment exercises until 23 October. She then departed for the Western Carolines as a unit of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 60. Arriving at Ulithi on 5 November, she joined Task Force 38, the fast carrier force, and got underway the same day to screen the carriers as their planes conducted strikes against Japanese targets on Luzon and Mindoro. Returning to Ulithi on 22 November, she was underway again on the 27th to report for duty with the Seventh Fleet.

Joining Task Group (TG) 77.2 on 29 November 1944, in San Pedro Bay, she patrolled Leyte Gulf and participated in strikes against enemy forces in Ormoc Bay. On 12 December, she shifted to TG 77.3 and took up a screening position with the Mindoro assault force. On the 15th, she provided fire support for the troops and antiaircraft protection for the ships in the transport area.

Moale departed for Leyte on 17 December 1944. Arriving on the 18th, she completed a high speed cargo run to Ulithi and back by the end of the year. On 3 January 1945, she was once again en route to an assault area. Steaming with TG 77.2, she arrived off Luzon on the 6th and commenced screening the heavy ships to seaward as they bombarded San Fernando and other enemy concentrations in the proposed beachhead area. On the 9th, she took up gunfire support duties, alternating such duties with antisubmarine and antiaircraft operations. The destroyer operated with the Luzon covering group until the 22nd. She then returned to Leyte, whence she steamed back to Ulithi to resume operations with the fast carrier forces, now designated TF 58.

On 10 February 1945, the force sortied from Ulithi and on the 16th and 17th strikes were conducted against the enemy’s capital to prevent aid from being sent to the Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima. Two ships of DesRon 60, Barton (DD-722) and Ingraham (DD-694), were damaged when they collided on the 16th while screening the carriers, and on the 17th Moale was detached to escort them back to Saipan. While enroute, in waters roughly northwest of Chichi Jima, she assisted in the sinking of the Japanese guardboats No. 35 Nanshin Maru, No. 3 Kyowa Maru, and No. 5 Fukuichi Maru. Ordered back on the 18th, she rendezvoused with TG 58.4 on the 19th and, on the 21st, screened the carriers as they provided air cover for the marines on Iwo Jima.

Having sustained extensive damage to her deck and her forward twin 5-inch mount, in heavy seas with 40‑foot swells, Moale departed the Volcanos on 25 February 1945, and sailed eastward for repairs at Pearl Harbor. On 3 June, she returned to Ulithi, getting underway for the combat area the next day. Arriving at Hagushi Anchorage, Okinawa, on 7 June, she reported to commander TG 31.5 and immediately became part of the antiaircraft defenses of the area. Through the 27th she served on radar picket stations, where danger remained present and alerts still frequent, even though the pressure was not as great as in April and May. On the 28th, Moale departed for Leyte, where she joined TG 32.12 and returned to Okinawa to act as part of the covering force for minesweepers in Operation Juneau.

At the end of the month, Moale once again anchored in San Pedro Bay, Leyte. There, on 15 August 1945, she received word of the Japanese surrender. On the 20th, she sailed to rendezvous with TG 38.4 off the coast of Japan, and for the next month she steamed off that coast, serving as a weather ship and air route radio beacon. On 27 September she departed Tokyo Bay, proceeding, via Guam, to the west coast and peacetime duty.

Moale remained in operation off the west coast until 21 May 1946, when she sailed for Bikini to join TF 1 for Operation Crossroads, returning to the west coast for overhaul at Bremerton on 22 August. Overhaul completed in January 1947, she conducted operations along the California coast until March. She then deployed to the western Pacific for six months prior to reporting to the Fleet Sonar School at San Diego for duty as a training ship.

In the spring of 1949, Moale, with DesDiv 72, was transfered to the Atlantic Fleet. Arriving at Norfolk at the end of April 1949, she participated in training exercises in the western Atlantic until November, 1950, when she sailed eastward for her first Sixth Fleet deployment. Similar operational schedules, alternate east coast and Mediterranean duties, were followed until 24 April 1953, when Moale departed on an around‑the‑world voyage. During that cruise, which ended at Norfolk, 27 October, the destroyer spent four months with the U.N. forces off the coast of Korea. During June and July, she operated with TF 77 and TF 95, remaining after the truce as a unit of the security patrol.

From 1954, into 1969, Moale’s employment schedule has included operations in the Atlantic, North Sea, and the Caribbean, with regular rotation to the Mediterranean for duty with the Sixth Fleet. Highlights of her career during this period were patrol duty in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Israeli‑Egyptian war of 1956; duty as a recovery ship for the Project Mercury mission of astronaut M. Scott Carpenter in May 1962; participation in the Cuban Quarantine, October‑November 1962; and standby duty for the evacuation of American nationals from Cyprus in 1964.

Ultimately stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 July 1973, ex-Moale was disposed of, by Navy sale, on 1 December 1974.

Moale received five battle stars for service in World War II; one for Korea.