USS Stoddard (DD-566)
_underway_in_April_1944.jpg)
USS Stoddard (DD-566) in April 1944
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Namesake: | James Stoddard |
| Builder: | Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down: | 10 March 1943 |
| Launched: | 19 November 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 15 April 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 26 September 1969 |
| Struck: | 1 June 1975 |
| Fate: | Sunk in an exercise, 22 July 1997 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Fletcher class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2,050 tons |
| Length: | 376 ft 6 in (114.7 m) |
| Beam: | 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft 9 in (5.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | 60,000 shp (45 MW); 2 propellers |
| Speed: | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Range: | 6500 nmi. (12,000 km) @ 15 kt |
| Complement: | 329 |
| Armament: |
|
USS Stoddard (DD-566) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Master's Mate James Stoddard, who was decorated for heroism during the Civil War. She was the last Fletcher to be stricken from the U.S. Navy, in 1975.
Stoddard was laid down at Seattle, Washington, by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp. on 10 March 1943; launched on 19 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Mildred Gould Holcomb; and commissioned on 15 April 1944, Commander Horace Meyers in command.
Following her shakedown training out of San Diego and post-shakedown availability at Seattle, Stoddard screened a convoy to Pearl Harbor, departing the west coast on 16 July and reaching Hawaii on the 29th. She entered another brief availability period at Pearl Harbor, then headed north. On 8 August, she arrived in Adak, Alaska, and joined Task Force 94 (TF 94), made up of light cruisers Trenton (CL-11), Concord (CL-10), Richmond (CL-9), and the destroyers of Destroyer Division 57 (DesDiv 57).
The mission of TF 94 was to harass Japanese outposts in the Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan proper and west of the Aleutian Islands. On 14 August 1944, Stoddard sailed with the task force to make her first offensive sweep of those forward enemy positions. Poor weather conditions forced the ships to abandon the mission. Task Force 94 was redesignated TF 92 between that first abortive mission and the second one, begun on 26 August. Foul weather again foiled the American attack, and the task force put into Attu. The storms were so bad and came so often that TF 92 did not successfully complete a raid until late November.
...
Wikipedia