11/19/2023
Eighty years ago today, the BUCKLEY class, USS WHITEHURST, was commissioned, a ship destined to have a long and varied career. She honored Henry Purefoy Whitehurst, Jr., born on 16 February 1920, in New Bern, North Carolina. He was appointed a midshipman on 14 July 1938, and, because of the exigencies of war, graduated with the Naval Academy's Class of 1942 on 19 December 1941. He reported to the heavy cruiser, ASTORIA (CA-34), on the morning of 18 January 1942, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Whitehurst served as a junior watch and division officer in Astoria, as that ship took part in the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, and Guadalcanal. A little after 0152 on the morning of 9 August, a Japanese force slipped undetected into the waters south of Savo Island, unleashing a devastating night attack on the cruisers. Three were sunk, but ASTORIA lingered on, while her surviving officers and men labored to save their ship. However, the damage proved too great; and ASTORIA, like her two sister ships, eventually succumbed shortly after noon on 9 August. Among the dead suffered in the Battle of Savo Island was Ensign Whitehurst.
His namesake, USS WHITEHURST (DE-634), was laid down on 21 March 1943, in San Francisco, by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The ship was launched on 5 September 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Robie S. Whitehurst, the mother of Ensign Whitehurst, and commissioned on 19 November 1943, with Lt. Comdr. James R. Grey in command.
WHITEHURST arrived in Pearl Harbor on 4 February 1944. Underway es**rting a convoy for the Solomons on the 7th, WHITEHURSE sailed via Majuro and Funafuti, and arrived on 23 February at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides. While es**rting a refueling group on 26 March, an enemy plane appeared. All ships present, including WHITEHURST, opened fire, but scored no hits as the plane climbed upward and out of sight.
She also participated in the amphibious operation against Wakde Island, screening the amphibious ships. WHITEHURST, in company with other units of Task Unit (TU) 72.2.9, arrived off Biak on 28 May, for landings there. She received an urgent message from LCI-34, which had been taken under fire by Japanese shore batteries. WHITEHURST arrived on the scene in time to be shelled herself, but the enemy's rounds caused no damage to the ship.
WHITEHURST performed es**rt duties and trained through the summer of 1944. WHITEHURST, with Lt. Jack C. Horton, USNR, now in command, was placed in the screen of a group of fleet tankers slated to supply units of the 7th Fleet on its drive into the Philippines. On 27 October, a week after American troops had landed on Leyte, two enemy planes attacked WHITEHURST, but both were driven off by antiaircraft fire from the ship's guns.
Two days later, on 29 October, WHITEHURST received word that, on the previous day, EVERSOLE (DE-404) had been torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine. WHITEHURST, detached to conduct a search, soon picked up a contact. WHITEHURST pressed home a fourth depth charge attack, and in quick succession, five to seven explosions rumbled up from the depths. Another violent underwater burst soon followed, causing a concussion that damaged WHITEHURST's detecting gear. The Japanese submarine I-45, the one that had killed EVERSOLE, had been destroyed.
Nearly a month later, while es**rting a 12-ship convoy from Leyte to New Guinea, WHITEHURST came under attack by two Japanese "Lilly" medium bombers. One skimmed low and dropped a bomb that fell well clear of the ships. The second started a glide bombing attack, but WHITEHURST's guns shot that raider into the sea.
WHITEHURST spent the remainder of 1944 and the first few months of 1945 in es**rt operations between New Guinea and the Philippines. When the American landings on Okinawa commenced on 1 April 1945, WHITEHURST was among the many screening vessels. On 6 April, while on patrol station off Kerama Retto, the destroyer es**rt drove off an enemy plane that had attacked the cargo vessel SS PIERRE.
Taking up station on the 10th, early in the afternoon two days later, a low-flying enemy plane closed the ship, only to be driven off by WHITEHURST's gunfire. At 1430, four "Val" dive-bombers approached the area from the south, and one detached itself from the group and headed for WHITEHURST. It circled, and soon commenced a steep dive while two of its companions also commenced an attack, one from the starboard beam and one from astern.
The latter two planes spun down in flames, destroyed by antiaircraft fire, but the original attacker continued down, in spite of the 20-millimeter hits that tore at the plane. This "Val" crashed into the ship's forward superstructure on the port side of the pilot house, penetrating bulkheads and starting fires that enveloped the entire bridge. All the while, the plane's bomb continued through the ship and exploded some 50 feet off her starboard bow.
WHITEHURST circled, out of control, while VIGILANCE (AM-324), patrolling a nearby sector, rang up flank speed and raced toward the burning destroyer es**rt to render assistance. By the time VIGILANCE finally caught up with WHITEHURST, the destroyer es**rt's crew had put out the most serious fires; but the minesweeper proved invaluable in aiding the wounded. The prompt and efficient administering of first aid and the injection of plasma undoubtedly saved many lives. Twenty-one of the 23 wounded transferred to VIGILANCE were saved.
With a VILILANCE signalman on board, because WHITEHURST's signal bridge personnel had been decimated. The damaged destroyer es**rt limped into Kerama Retto for temporary patching. Seaworthy enough for a voyage to Hawaii, WHITEHURST reached Pearl Harbor on 10 May, and was docked for repairs and alterations.
Once the yard work had been completed and the ship had been converted to a floating power station, the ship supplied the city of Manila with power from August through October of 1945. WHITEHURST then supplied electrical power to the dredge YM-25 into 1946. Returning to the continental United States in April 1946, WHITEHURST was decommissioned on 27 November 1946, and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs.
As a result of the outbreak of war in Korea, WHITEHURST was recommissioned on 1 September 1950, and soon sailed for the Far East. The destroyer es**rt earned three battle stars for her activities during the Korean War. She remained in the Far East until 1955. WHITEHURST operated between Hawaii and Guam into 1956.
Departing Guam on 22 February for Yokosuka, Japan, the ship sailed via the northern Marianas, the Bonins, and the Volcano Islands.
She spent two weeks in Japanese waters before returning to Guam on 17 March. After a period of local operations out of Pearl Harbor, WHITEHURST underwent four weeks of upkeep and repairs, before beginning six weeks of duty with 20th Century Fox during the filming of the World War II adventure movie, "The Enemy Below." During that time, she portrayed the destroyer es**rt USS HAYNES.
Upon completion of the filming of the movie, WHITEHURST operated off Oahu until late in September, when she was ordered to Seattle for duty as training ship with the 13th Naval District.
On 6 December 1958, WHITEHURST was decommissioned and placed in an "in service" status as a unit of the Select Reserve ASW Force. Thereafter, into the 1960's, WHITEHURST cruised one weekend per month, and made one two-week cruises per year.
Recommissioned on 2 October 1961, as a result of the Berlin Crisis, the destroyer es**rt departed Seattle for her new home port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After a period of training in the Hawaiian area, WHITEHURST departed Pearl Harbor on 10 February 1962, for a deployment to the Western Pacific (WestPac).
Returning to Seattle in on 17 July 1962, she was decommissioned on 1 August 1962, and placed in service as a Naval Reserve training ship. Then WHITEHURST resumed operations out of Seattle. During 1963, the ship received two major changes in her configuration, when her 40-millimeter mounts and ship-to-shore power reels, the latter items having enabled her to function as a floating power station, were removed.
Operating off the west coast, on 17 January 1965, while operating in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in dense fog, the WHITEHURST collided with the Norwegian freighter, SS HOYANGER. Both ships then ran aground in shallow water. The destroyer es**rt suffered a five-foot gash in her stern above the waterline, while the freighter got off with three feet of scraped bow plates. The following day, both ships were pulled off by tugs.
WHITEHURST continued to operate locally out of Seattle into 1967, and WHITEHURST's home port was shifted to Portland, Oregon. However, WHITEHURST's days were also numbered, and she, too, was soon deactivated. On 12 July 1969, the destroyer es**rt was taken out of service and struck from the Navy list. She was eventually taken to sea and sunk as a target by, TRIGGER (SS-564), on 28 April 1971.
A postwar view of WHITEHURST, with her distinctive cable reels on the 01 level amidships. .