USS Fletcher, name ship of a very large class of 2050-ton destroyers, was built at Kearny, New Jersey. Commissioned at the end of June 1942, she was sent to the south Pacific war zone in October of that year to assist with the Guadalcanal campaign. The next month, she took part in two major night gunfire and torpedo actions, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13th and the Battle of Tassafaronga on the 30th. Fletcher remained in the south Pacific for the next six months, during the final part of the Guadalcanal struggle and the early stages of the Central Solomons campaign. Among her activities were bombardments of the Japanese airfield at Munda in January, March and May 1943, the sinking of Japanese submarine I-18 on 11 February and the occupation of the Russell Islands later in that month.
After overhaul in the U.S., Fletcher returned to the Pacific war zone in time to serve with the aircraft carrier task forces in the Gilbert Islands invasion in November 1943 and raids into the Marshall Islands in December. During January and February 1944, she took part in bombardments and amphibious landings in the Marshalls. A few months later, the destroyer went to the New Guinea area, where she supported the campaign across northern New Guinea and into Morotai from April through September. In 1944's last three months and the first five months of 1945, she participated in landings on Leyte, Morotai, Lingayen Gulf and several other places in the Philippines and Borneo. Fletcher was damaged by Japanese artillery fire in Manila Bay on 14 February 1945, but was able to remain in action.
As the Pacific war concluded in the summer of 1945, Fletcher was completing overhaul work in the U.S. She briefly operated along the west coast and in Hawaiian waters, but was inactive during most of 1946. Formally decommissioned in mid-January 1947, the ship was in "mothballs" until 1949, when she was converted to an anti-submarine destroyer and redesignated DDE-445.
Fletcher recommissioned in October 1949 and began a tour of duty in the Far East in May 1950. She took part in the first part of the Korean War and made two more combat tours in that area in 1951-52 and in 1953. After the end of fighting in Korea, Fletcher regularly deployed to the western Pacific for service with the Seventh Fleet. Her designation changed back to DD-445 in mid-1962, but she continued to serve in an anti-submarine capacity. In addition to countering the large undersea fleets maintained by the Soviet Union and China, she was an active participant in Vietnam War patrol and gunfire support operations from 1965 to 1969. Following nearly three decades of service, USS Fletcher was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register at the beginning of August 1969, only a few months after the end of her last "WestPac" cruise. She was sold for scrapping in February 1972.
USS Fletcher (DD-445) was named in honor of Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, USN (1855-1928), an important figure of the Navy of the Nineteen "Teens".
This page features selected views of USS Fletcher (DD-445, later DDE-445).
For pictorial coverage on a Sailor who received the Medal of Honor for heroism
on board USS Fletcher in February 1945, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: 19-N-31243 USS Fletcher (DD-445) Maneuvering off New York on 18 July 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-31245 USS Fletcher (DD-445) Underway off New York, 18 July 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 53916 USS Fletcher (DD-445) At anchor in Purvis Bay, Florida Island, Solomon Islands, on 26 March 1943. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 560 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 63537 USS Fletcher (DD-445) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa mid-August 1943. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 49KB; 740 x 630 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-50812 USS Fletcher (DD-445) At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 13 August 1943. USS Hazelwood (DD-531) is in the background. Note anchor chain, winch and Jack at Fletcher's bow; also crewmen on the foredeck smoking cigarettes and clowning for the benefit of the photographer. Circles mark recent alterations, among them the addition of 40mm twin mounts on each side of the forward and midships superstructure. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 123KB; 585 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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The following views show USS Fletcher after she was converted to an escort destroyer:
For pictorial coverage on a Sailor who received the Medal of Honor for heroism
on board USS Fletcher in February 1945, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 22 February 2002
Link added 30 June 2006