USS Grayson Circa 1942
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USS Grayson (DD-435), 1941-1972
USS Grayson, a 1620-ton Gleaves class destroyer built at the
Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina, was commissioned in February 1941. For the
remaining ten months of an increasingly tense "peace" she took part in Atlantic
Ocean Neutrality Patrols, convoy escort duties and other "short of war"
activities. After war began with Germany, Italy and Japan, Grayson steamed through the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet and, in April 1942,
took part in the Doolittle
raid on Japan.
Grayson received an overhaul during the next few months but reentered
the combat zone in time to escort the aircraft carrier Enterprise during the invasion
of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August 1942 and in the Battle of the
Eastern Solomons later in that month. She suffered light damage and some
casualties from Japanese air attack in the latter action. The destroyer was in
the south Pacific well into 1943, supporting the long and bloody campaign
to hold Guadalcanal and, on 18 October 1942 rescued survivors of her sunken
sister ship, USS Meredith,
and recovered the abandoned tug Vireo.
Four months later, while escorting a Guadalcanal-bound convoy in the early
morning darkness of 17 February 1943, Grayson helped to repel an enemy
torpedo plane attack.
Shipyard work kept Grayson out of the combat zone during mid-1943, but
she was back in the south Pacific by late September. Early in October she took
part in battles with barges evacuating Japanese forces from Kolombangara. In the
spring and early summer of 1944 she participated in amphibious assaults in the
Admiralty Islands and along the northern shore of New Guinea. The invasion of
the Palaus was her assignment in September 1944, and during mid-October she was
present when the cruisers Houston and Canberra were towed out of
danger after they had been torpedoed off Formosa.
For the rest of 1944 and through the first five months of 1945, Grayson was employed on patrol and rescue duty in the central Pacific.
She was overhauled during June-August 1945 and did not rejoin the combat fleet
until the fighting had ceased. Almost immediately sent back to the U.S., Grayson arrived at her birthplace, Charleston, S.C., in time to
participate in the great Navy Day celebrations in October 1945. Decommissioned
in February 1947, she was in the Reserve Fleet for more than two decades. USS Grayson was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in February 1971 and
was sold for scrapping in November 1972.
Courtesy of the Naval Historical Center
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