Hull Number: DE-703
Launch Date: 12/15/1943
Commissioned Date: 05/01/1944
Decommissioned Date: 05/31/1946
Call Sign: NTLE
Class: BUCKLEY
BUCKLEY Class
Namesake: RALPH LEE HOLTON
RALPH LEE HOLTON
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2016
Ralph Lee Holton was born 19 September 1918, and graduated from the Naval Academy in December 1941. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his valiant rescue work aiding survivors of the stricken carrier Lexington 8 May 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea. As officer-in-charge of a boat detailed to rescue survivors from the burning carrier, Ensign Holton, under a hail of flaming debris from bombs, ammunition, and gasoline exploding on Lexington, persistently returned to the stricken ship and thus effected a series of daring rescues in which he saved the lives of many members of the ship’s crew who otherwise would have been lost. Less than a month later, 6 June, Ensign Holton was reported missing and presumed dead as his ship, the destroyer Hamman, was sunk during the Battle of Midway.
Disposition:
Holton berthed at Green Cove Springs, Florida, on 20 January 1946, and remained there until decommissioning and going into reserve on 31 May 1946. Holton was moved in January 1947 to Orange, Texas. She was sold for scrap on 30 May 1974.