The Last Cruise of the USS Grayson DD435
After spending 16 months at Munda, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands, I requested and received destroyer duty. My orders were to report to the USS Grayson DD435 which was at Saipan Island, in the Marianas Islands.
Shortly after I went aboard, we received orders to go to Okinawa where destroyers on picket duty were taking a pounding from Kamikaze’s, flying from Japan.
The Grayson had not been in battle for over a year and first we had to put to sea for gunnery practice.
My battle station was with the after repair party to starboard, about half way between the #4, 5" - 38 gun and the bridge. #4 was manned and trained to fire at what I would estimate to be about 30 degrees from the starboard bow and when fired the projectile exploded prematurely between my position and the bridge and what I would estimate to be about 75 feet from the starboard side. Shrapnel raked the starboard side from the bridge to the area in which we stood. Two men standing with me were badly injured and another one nearby died instantly from massive head injuries. The injured totaled 12 and the more seriously ones were transferred to a PT boat and rushed to the Army hospital at Siapan. I have a small piece of steel deep in my left thigh and is still there. At the time I wasn't even aware of it and it has never caused any problems.
We received orders to proceed to Pearl, then to Seattle for a 3 month overhaul, then back to pearl and were there when surrender was signed. From there we joined a task force and proceeded to the Panama Canal, then on to Charleston, S.C. where we started preparing the Grayson to be decommissioned and this was completed in February, 1947. The Grayson had been my home for 16 months.
This account of the Grayson’s last cruise from Saipan to Charleston is from memory. To my knowledge there is no written history of these times and I feel compelled to write of its final days.
It seems incredible that this ship, after 13 engagements, sinking one submarine, downing 7 bombers, sinking 4 or more troop carrying barges, being strafed by aircraft, and the only survivor out of 4 from destroyer division 22, and having only 1 fatality, and that from its own 5" gun. It was a great ship that did its job well.
--Marion Turner CPHM USN, 1940-1947
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Information was provided by Dave Craigmile, ENS USS Grayson. Copyright 2000, USS Grayson Association and Richard Angelini.
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