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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Grayson (DD-435), 1941-1972

USS Grayson, a 1620-ton Gleaves class destroyer built at the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina, was commissioned in February 1941. For the remaining ten months of an increasingly tense "peace" she took part in Atlantic Ocean Neutrality Patrols, convoy escort duties and other "short of war" activities. After war began with Germany, Italy and Japan, Grayson steamed through the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet and, in April 1942, took part in the Doolittle raid on Japan.

Grayson received an overhaul during the next few months but reentered the combat zone in time to escort the aircraft carrier Enterprise during the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August 1942 and in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons later in that month. She suffered light damage and some casualties from Japanese air attack in the latter action. The destroyer was in the south Pacific well into 1943, supporting the long and bloody campaign to hold Guadalcanal and, on 18 October 1942 rescued survivors of her sunken sister ship, USS Meredith, and recovered the abandoned tug Vireo. Four months later, while escorting a Guadalcanal-bound convoy in the early morning darkness of 17 February 1943, Grayson helped to repel an enemy torpedo plane attack.

Shipyard work kept Grayson out of the combat zone during mid-1943, but she was back in the south Pacific by late September. Early in October she took part in battles with barges evacuating Japanese forces from Kolombangara. In the spring and early summer of 1944 she participated in amphibious assaults in the Admiralty Islands and along the northern shore of New Guinea. The invasion of the Palaus was her assignment in September 1944, and during mid-October she was present when the cruisers Houston and Canberra were towed out of danger after they had been torpedoed off Formosa.

For the rest of 1944 and through the first five months of 1945, Grayson was employed on patrol and rescue duty in the central Pacific. She was overhauled during June-August 1945 and did not rejoin the combat fleet until the fighting had ceased. Almost immediately sent back to the U.S., Grayson arrived at her birthplace, Charleston, S.C., in time to participate in the great Navy Day celebrations in October 1945. Decommissioned in February 1947, she was in the Reserve Fleet for more than two decades. USS Grayson was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in February 1971 and was sold for scrapping in November 1972.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Grayson (DD-435).

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 19-N-23832 USS Grayson (DD-435) Off the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina, on 17 April 1941. She is wearing freshly-applied Measure 1 camouflage. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 19-N-23830 USS Grayson (DD-435) Off the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina, on 17 April 1941. She is wearing freshly-applied Measure 1 camouflage. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-41759 USS Grayson (DD-435) Photographed circa 1942. This photograph has been retouched by the wartime censor to eliminate radar antennas atop the ship's foremast and gun director. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 570 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-41760 USS Grayson (DD-435) Photographed circa 1942. This photograph has been retouched by the wartime censor to eliminate radar antennas atop the ship's foremast and gun director. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 600 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: NH 50222 USS Grayson (DD-435) With a sister ship in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands, on 1 April 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 610 pixels
Photo #: 19-N-23829 USS Grayson (DD-435) Ship's Historical Data Plaque, photographed at the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina, 17 April 1941. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

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Page made 16 May 2002