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N7KTP > NAVNET 25.05.05 10:41l 114 Lines 5962 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 38919_N7FSP
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Subj: USS DALE (DD-353)
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Sent: 050524/1339z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
Destroyer Dale rang up 12 battle stars in World War II Pacific
By Fred Miles Watson - Managing Editor - Northwest Navigator
The fourth ship to be named Dale and the lead ship of a new class
of destroyers, DD-353 was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and was
commissioned June 17, 1935 with Cmdr. W.A. Corn as its first commanding
officer.
With a displacement of 1,500-tons, Dale was 341 feet in length and
had a draft of 16 feet four inches. She was outfitted with five, 5-inch
gunmounts and eight, 21-inh torpedo tubes. Dale was quick with a top
speed of 36 knots. A total of 160 men served in Dale.
Joining the fleet, Dale made a southern cruise from Feb. 13 to
March 6, 1936, visiting Norfolk, Dry Tortugas, Fla., and Galveston,
Tex. and acted as escort for President F D. Roosevelt's cruise in the
Bahamas before departing for the West Coast. She took part in fleet
problems, made a good will visit to Callan, Peru, served as training
ship for the gunnery school at San Diego, and cruised to Hawaii,
Alaska, and the Caribbean on exercises.
On Oct. 5, 1939 Dale departed San Diego to join the Hawaiian
Detachment for training and patrol. She was moored at Pearl Harbor when
the Japanese attacked 7 December 1941. The duty officer (an Ensign) got
her underway immediately to establish a patrol off the harbor entrance.
Ship's gunners took aim at enemy planes, downing at least one.
From Dec. 14, 1941 to March 17,1942 Dale screened the carriers
Lexington (CV-2) and Yorktown (CV-5), covering the strikes on the
Salamaua-Lae area of New Guinea on March 10. Dale returned to Pearl
Harbor on escort and training duty until May 11 when she departed for
Mare Island and an overhaul. On June 6, she sailed from San Francisco,
with others, to back up the task forces engaged in the Battle of Midway
from July 6 to Aug. 17. She was assigned to convoy duty between Viti
Levu, Fijis, and Efate and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, in preparation
for the assault on Guadalcanal. She covered the landings, escorted
transports loaded with reinforcements to the bitterly contested island
from Aug. 18 to Sept. 21, then sailed to Pearl Harbor for escort and
training duty until Nov. 10. She sailed to screen the battleships
Washington (BB-66) and South Dakota (BB-67) into Pearl Harbor and
continued with escorting battleship South Dakota to San Francisco.
On Jan. 9, 1943 Dale sailed from San Francisco for duty in
Aleutian waters. She supported the occupation of Amchitka between Jan.
23 and March 19, patrolling and repelling attacks by the Japanese. On
March 22 her group sailed to patrol west of Attu to intercept and
destroy enemy shipping bound for Attu or Kiska. Four days later the
group engaged a numerically superior Japanese force screening
reinforcements to Attu.
In the resulting Battle of the Komandorski Islands, at one time or
another Dale took all of the Japanese cruisers under fire as well as
screening the damaged Salt Lake City (CA-25). The Japanese reinforce-
ments failed to reach Attu. She screened transports and fire support
ships into Attu for the assault on May 11, then patrolled off Attu
until Aug. 1. She joined in the pre-invasion bombardment of Kiska on
Aug. 2, then screened the transports which landed men there Aug.13. She
joined USS Kane (DD-236) for a reconnaissance of both Rat and Buldir
Is1ands on Aug. 22, but found no Japanese present.
Sailing from Adak on Sept. 5, 1943, Dale arrived at Pearl Harbor
Sept. 16 to screen the group which on 8 October fueled carriers
returning from a 2-day air strike on Wake. Dale trained at Pearl Harbor
until Nov. 5. She escorted a group of LST's to the landings on Makin of
Nov. 20, then sailed for the West Coast.
Dale got underway from San Diego on Jan.13, 1944 to screen
carriers during the assaults on Kwaja1ein and Eniwetok. She served in
the Marshalls on escort and patrol until March 22, then screened Task
Force 58 during air attacks on Palau, Yap, Ulithi and Wolesi between
March 30 and April 1 raids supporting the Hollandia operations, from
April 21 to 24; and strikes on Truk, Satawan and Ponape from April 20
April to May 1.
From June 6 to July 30, Dale served in the capture of the
Marianas bombarding Saipan and Guam, screening carriers during the
Battle of the Philippine Sea, and supporting underwater demolition
teams. She then sailed for Bremerton Navy Yard and a well-deserved
overhaul from August to October. Back at sea, Dale returned to Pearl
Harbor for training, then sailed to Ulithi to join the logistics group
serving Task Force 38. She screened this group during refueling
operations in support of the Philippines invasion, between Nov. 25 to
Dec. 8, and wile it refueled Task Force 38 in the South China Sea dur-
ing its raids on the Chinese coast, Formosa, Luzon, and Okinawa. She
remained with the group during the daring carrier strikes on Tokyo and
Kobe which prepared for the assau1t on Iwo Jima and the strikes
accompanying the invasion.
Dale cruised with the logistics group on five voyages between
Ulithi and Okinawa area between March 13, 1945 and June 11, when she
sailed for Leyte to join a carrier division's screen. From June 26 to
July 3 her force launched strikes in the seizure and occupation of
Balikpapan, Borneo. Dale returned to Leyte to escort a convoy to Ulithi
and patrolled there until July 29 and then escorted a convoy to
Okinawa.
Dale was at anchorage at Guam when hostilities with Japan ended.
She then sailed to convoy two ships to a rendezvous on Aug. 19 off
Japan, then sailed homeward, arriving at San Diego on Sept. 7. Four
days later she was underway for the East Coast and arrived at New York
on Sept. 25. Dale was decommissioned Oct. 16, 1945 and was sold for
scrapping Dec. 20, 1946.
USS Dale (DD-353) was awarded 12 battle stars for her World War
II service.
.1
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