USS Young, a 2050-ton Fletcher class destroyer built at Orange, Texas, was commissioned at the end of July 1943. Her early service was mainly spent in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, but also featured a trans-Atlantic voyage in November as an escort to USS Iowa, as that battleship transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt part of the way to the Teheran Conference. Later in that month Young passed through the Panama Canal to join the war against Japan. She went to Alaskan waters in January 1944 to begin an eight month tour in the northern Pacific theater. While there, the destroyer was employed on escort and patrol duties, taking time out in February and June to bombard Japanese facilities in the Kuril Islands.
An overhaul during September and October was followed by transfer to the western Pacific. Young arrived in the Philippines in November and participated in the final phase of the Leyte campaign. The next month she was part of the force that attacked Mindoro, experiencing Japanese suicide plane attacks that hit several ships in her group. Young also took part in the Lingayen invasion in January 1945 and in subsequent operations around Luzon and in the southern Philippines. She steamed back to the U.S. West Coast during late May and early June for another overhaul. This work was completed at the end of July, a few weeks before the end of the Pacific War's fighting.
Young operated in Hawaiian waters for much of August and September 1945, then steamed to the U.S. East Coast, arriving in late October. Inactive during nearly all of 1946, she was formally decommissioned in January 1947. USS Young was in "mothballs" as part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until May 1968, when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. She was sunk as a target on 6 March 1970.
USS Young was named in honor of Rear Admiral Lucien Young, USN, (1852-1912).
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Young (DD-580).
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.
In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Young (DD-580). The following list features this image:
The image listed below is NOT in the
Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USS Young (DD-580) in a harbor, moving very slowly, if at all. Photograph received by the Naval Photo Science Laboratory on 9 May 1944. Starboard broadside surface view. This view has been retouched (rather crudely) by wartime censors to remove radar antennas atop the ship's foremast and Mark 37 gun director. Young is painted in what appears to be Measure 22 (horizontal two-tone) camouflage.
Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". |
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 26 March 2005