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Photo # 19-N-30842:  USS Meade off New York City, 20 June 1942

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

USS Meade (DD-602), 1942-1973

USS Meade, a 1620-ton Benson class destroyer, was built at Staten Island, New York. Commissioned in June 1942, she went to the Pacific war zone after shaking down off the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean. From September 1942 until February 1943 Meade took part in the long and difficult fight to hold Guadalcanal. In addition to escort operations, in mid-November she operated close to the embattled island, shelling Japanese transports and rescuing survivors of sunken U.S. warships.

In March 1943 Meade left the warm south Pacific for the much chillier Aleutians, where she participated in the invasion of Attu in May and the occupation of Kiska in August. The destroyer returned south in October 1943 and during the next month was part of the armada that put U.S. Marines ashore at Tarawa, in the Gilbert Islands. While operating off Tarawa on 22 November, she assisted in sinking the Japanese submarine I-35. Meade's next combat operation was the invasion of Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands, from late January to mid-February 1944. For the next several months she screened U.S. aircraft carriers during their raids throughout the central Pacific, and was employed in local patrol and bombardment activities in the Marshalls.

Overhauled at Mare Island, California, during the summer of 1944, Meade operated in Hawaiian and central Pacific waters from September of that year until February 1945, when she began Philippines area escort and patrol duty that lasted until the end of the Pacific War, with time out in May to participate in landings on Mindanao. After Japan surrendered in early September Meade served off French Indochina. She steamed home to the U.S. East Coast in November and December and, following a shipyard overhaul, was decommissioned in June 1946. USS Meade was laid up as a member of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet for the next twenty-five years. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1971, she was sunk as a target in February 1973.

USS Meade was named in honor of Rear Admiral Richard Worsam Meade (1837-1897), who served actively as an officer in the Navy from 1850 to 1895; and his brother, Brigadier General Robert Lemy Meade (1841-1910), who was on active duty as a U.S. Marine Corps officer from 1862 to 1906.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Meade (DD-602).

For more views concerning this ship, see:

  • USS Meade (DD-602) -- Construction, 1941-1942.


    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-30842

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    Off New York City, 20 June 1942, probably during her delivery voyage from the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard at Staten Island.
    The ship, which is flying her builder's flag, was commissioned two days later.
    Note her pattern camouflage.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 465 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-30843

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    Off New York City, 20 June 1942, probably during her delivery voyage from the Bethlehem Steel Company's Staten Island shipyard.
    The ship was placed in commission two days later.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 480 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-71187

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    In San Francisco Bay, California, 11 September 1944.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.
    Meade is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 6d.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 510 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-71186

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    In San Francisco Bay, California, 11 September 1944.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.
    Meade is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 6d.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 485 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-71189

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    In San Francisco Bay, California, 11 September 1944.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 450 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 98476

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    Off San Francisco, California, 11 September 1944.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98477

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    Off San Francisco, California, 11 September 1944, with Yerba Buena Island in the background.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-71194

    USS Meade (DD-602)


    At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 September 1944.
    Note empty depth charge racks at her stern.
    Circles drawn on photo mark recent alterations to the ship.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 123KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-K-2231 (Color)

    USS Meade (DD-602)

    Depth charge exploding astern, after it was dropped from the destroyer's stern depth charge racks, circa 1944.
    Meade is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 6d, which is partially visible on her after smokestack, in the foreground of the photograph.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 520 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     

    For more views concerning this ship, see:

  • USS Meade (DD-602) -- Construction, 1941-1942.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 4 May 2003
    Link added 15 June 2003