QUICK FACT FRIDAY
USS Laffey (DD 724)
Through the month of December, the Mount Pleasant Historical Commission will highlight historical a rac ons and museums within the town. Today, we visit the USS Laffey (DD 724 )-- "the ship that would not die" -- a designated Na onal Historic Landmark and a museum ship within the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.
The Laffey, a United States Navy destroyer, was commissioned in early 1944, in me to provide gun support for the D-Day landings in Normandy, France during World War II. On June 6, 1944, she was off Utah Beach, Baie de la Seine. Later in that month, while a acking Nazi posi ons at Cherbourg on June 25, she was struck by a shell that did not explode. Transi ng the Panama Canal, she joined the Pacific fleet and par cipated in the invasions of the Philippines, and Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan. Posted as a radar picket ship off Okinawa in April 1945, she received crippling damage from four Japanese bombs, six kamikaze crashes, and repeated strafing fire that killed 32 and wounded 71. Crippled but unbeaten, she was repaired and rejoined the Pacific War. Before her first decommissioning on June 30, 1947, she par cipated in Opera on Crossroads, the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. During the Korean War, she was re-commissioned and helped enforce a naval blockade of the east coast of the Korean peninsula, engaging in gun duels with enemy forces at Wonsan. In the Suez Crisis of 1956, she patrolled the Israeli-Egyp an border. Un l she was again decommissioned and stricken on March 9, 1975, she patrolled the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean and the Atlan c during the Cold War. She is the last of the Sumner-class destroyers. In 1981, she joined the Patriots Point fleet, and in 1986, she won well deserved designation as a National Historic Landmark.
The Laffey is the second ship in the U.S. Navy named for Seaman Bartle Laffey, a na ve of Ireland who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroic service at Yazoo City, Mississippi, in the Civil War. It is fitting that his namesake rests moored beside the Medal of Honor Museum.
For more informa on: Patriots Point Naval & Mari me Museum, llafey.org, Town of Mount Pleasant website, and mountpleasanthistorical.org.
Image credit: U.S. Navy - Official U.S. Navy photograph USN 1100870 from the U.S. Navy website A Brief History of U.S. Navy Destroyers, Part II -- World War II (1944-1945)
The Town of Mount Pleasant Historical Commission releases Quick Fact Fridays about the history of Mount Pleasant and about the Commission, its programs and activities. Historical facts are drawn largely from the Our History section of the Town's website. Follow the link below to discover what makes Mount Pleasant such a distinctive historical place! To receive Quick Fact Friday messages and other Town notifications, sign up for Notify Me alerts here.
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