Your Name:
Your Email:
To:
Subject:
Message: Here's a great article I found at www.northwestnavigator.com: -- 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-inch 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 Callao, 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 reinforcements 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 preinvasion 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 Islands 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 Oct. 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 Kwajalein 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 while it refueled Task Force 38 in the South China Sea during 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 assault on Iwo Jima, and the strikes accompanying the invasion. Dale cruised with the logistics group on five voyages between Ulithi and the 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 11 service http://www.northwestnavigator.com/index.php/navigator/regionalnews/destroyer_dale_rang_up_12_battle_stars_in_world_war_ii_pacific_destroyer_da/