This web site contains essays, articles and speeches by shipmates and war correspondents, most of which have not been published elsewhere and some of which provide particular insight

WRITING INDEX    First person accounts may be found for Gamble, Preston, Maury, La Vallette, Nicholas, O’Bannon, Chevalier, Strong, Taylor, De Haven, Bennett, Hudson, Buchanan, Lansdowne, Farenholt, Converse, Claxton, Newcomb, Heywood L. Edwards and Hugh W. Hadley.    World War II cruise book text may be found for Nicholas, Taylor and Heywood L. Edwards.    Namesakes’ biographies appear for individual goldplaters, 1500-tonners, 1850-ton leaders, Sims class and ships of DesDiv 22, Desron 12 and DesRon 21.    Recommended: use search (above) to find specific subjects.

into shipboard life.
   Highlights and major works are as follows:
• Russell S. Crenshaw, Jr. (executive officer, Maury): Crest of the Wave — including the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battles of Tassafaronga, Kolombangara and Vella Gulf.
• Virgil N. Wing (water tender, Nicholas): Destroyer Sailor — diary of Nicholas’s first wartime tour in the Solomon Islands, correlated with ship’s records, including commissioning, loss of De Haven, and the Battles of Kula Gulf and Kolombangara.
• Foster Hailey (war correspondent, New York Times): from Pacific Battle Line, a record of the first two years of war in the Pacific.
• Ernest A. Herr (sonarman, O’Bannon): Horror at Guadalcanal — O’Bannon’s first wartime tour in the Solomon Islands, including the Battle of Guadalcanal; The Last Day of the USS Emmons; The Last Day of the USS De Haven.
• Alton B. Grimes (radar and sonar officer, Strong): USS Strong (DD 467) World War II Operations and Stories of USS Strong (DD 467).
• Dow H. Ransom, Jr. (ship’s doctor, La Vallette): diary of La Vallette’s second and third wartime tours, including Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines.
• Nathan H. Cook (quartermaster, Newcomb): Steering a Fletcher (or Taming the Shrew); essays written for his children covering Newcomb’s entire career, including the Battle of Surigao Strait and kamikaze action at Okinawa.
• Roy Dockray (Newcomb): Reminisces of a Snipe.
• R. Douglas Turpen (navigator, Nicholas): Navigating the “Nick” — Nicholas’s second tour, including the Philippines, Borneo and Tokyo Bay.
• Douglas Perrett Starr (sonarman, Nicholas): I Would Not Have Missed It for the World; Taking Corregidor; and Mothballs.
• Charles Nelson (damage control officer, Claxton): Battle of Cape St. George 60th Anniversary Address, Division X-Ray atLeyte Gulf, Loss of Abner Read.
• Raymond E. Peet (OOD, Converse): Highlights of my tour of duty in DesRon 23 during World War II.
• William F. Vose (communications and sonar officer, Gamble; XO, Heywood L. Edwards): The Reasons for the Failure of our World War II Naval Torpedoes and How Lengo Channel was Swept for Mines.
• Warren W. Armstrong (commanding officer, Gamble and Bradford): Memories of the Gamble.
• Daniel E. Henry (commanding officer, Buchanan): Buchanan at Tokyo Bay.
• Harry Perkins (Heywood L. Edwards): diary.
• Robert Reed (Preston): recollections.