USS Kidd (DD-661) (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | memorial, museum, place with historical importance, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

 memorial, museum, place with historical importance, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

USS Kidd is a Fletcher Class Destroyer, laid down at the Federal Shipbuilding Yard in Kearny, NJ on October 16th, 1942, launched on February 28th, 1943 and commissioned in US Navy service on April 23rd, 1943. Named in honor of Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd, who was killed in action while serving as the Commander of Battleship Division One aboard the USS Arizona (BB-39) when she was attacked on December 7th, 1941, the crew of the Kidd instead chose the famous Pirate Captain Kidd as their ship’s official mascot, and by the time she put to sea for trials and shakedown she was already wearing the Jolly Roger on her foreword funnel.

Joining the US Atlantic Fleet, the Kidd was paired with major surface combatant convoys to the European theatre and spent the next four months engaged in escort duty before she was assigned to escort the Battleships USS Alabama (BB-60) & USS South Dakota (BB-57) to the Pacific. Arriving at Pearl Harbor in September 1943, the Kidd screened Carriers conducting airstrikes at Wake Island and then at Bougainville and Rabaul in the South Pacific through November, then continued North with the Carriers as they struck at Tarawa and other Japanese positions in the Gilbert Islands. Moving onward to the Marshall Islands, the Kidd screened Battleships and Cruisers conducting shore bombardments Roi and Wotje, while adding her own firepower to the American Invasion in February 1944. Performing the same role off the Marianas Islands from June through August, the Kidd withdrew from the front and called at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for a month’s work of hasty repair, regunning and upkeep before departing with a large convoy bound for Manaus Island. Arriving in October, she joined a large American armada was massing for the upcoming Invasion of the Philippine Islands and screened the Invasion Force as it landed on Leyte Island later in the month. After almost 30 days of constant fire support and anti-aircraft screening work off Leyte, the Kidd withdrew from the Philippines and escorted a convoy to New Guinea before shaping a course for the US Mainland on December 9th. Arriving at the Mare Island Naval Yard on Christmas Day 1944, the Kidd began what would become three months of much-needed overhaul and liberty for the war weary ship and her crew.

Returning to the fray in February 1945, the Kidd joined with Task Force 58 for duty in the upcoming Invasion of Okinawa, arriving off the Japanese Island on April 1st, 1945. Splitting her duties between screening Battleships and Carriers against air attack, shore bombardment, minesweeping, and radar picket duty, the Kidd and her crew got their first real exposure to a threat which first appeared in the Philippines; the Kamikaze. After screening the massively damaged USS Franklin (CV-13) after she was Kamikazed off Japan, the Kidd and her crew returned to Okinawa and were ordered to serve as full-time radar picket ships, using their radars to alert US forces on Okinawa to incoming air raids. This highly dangerous work meant that each picket ship would have to operate all but alone, which severely decreased their ability to repel air attack, let alone massed air attack. This weakness was driven home to the crew aboard the Kidd when on April 11th she was on picket duty in a line with her fellow Destroyers USS Black, (DD-666), USS Bullard (DD-660), and USS Chauncey (DD-667) to the North of Okinawa. In one morning the ships were the first line of defense against three separate air attack waves, driving off all three with heavy Japanese losses, however a fourth in the early afternoon proved too much for the ships to repel. Despite her gunners downing several Japanese aircraft, a single Kamikaze penetrated the Kidd’s AA fire and slammed into her hull, killing 38 of her crew and wounding 55 more. Taking moderate damage and forced to withdraw, the Kidd’s crew fought off Japanese air attack for several more hours, denying their attackers the chance to finish off the ship while downing several more Japanese planes. After initial inspections to her damaged hull at Ulithi Atoll warranted significant repairs be performed, the Kidd was ordered back to the US for repairs and departed the Pacific Theatre on May 2nd and arrived at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard 23 days later.

Emerging from the yard on August 1st, the Kidd stood out for Pearl Harbor where she and her crew were to begin training for the upcoming Invasion of Mainland Japan. While underway, her crew received word of the Japanese surrender and she was ordered to stand down upon her arrival at Pearl. Remaining at Pearl Harbor until the armistice was signed, the Kidd and her crew loaded homeward bound Veterans and returned to United States on September 24th calling at San Diego. With her war over, the Kidd was prepared for inactivation and formally decommissioned on December 10th, 1946 with eight battle stars for World War II service to her credit.

The Kidd’s stay in mothballs was cut short by the outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula in 1950 and the subsequent involvement of UN forces. Her overhaul just prior to her deactivation meant the Kidd was in excellent material condition, so the order came for her reactivation in early 1951. Recommissioned in March 1951, the Kidd stood out for action once again in June 1951 and arrived off the Korean coast in September where she operated with Task Force 77 patrolling the coast and bombarding targets of opportunity through January 1952. Returning stateside for overhaul in February, the Kidd returned to the Korean theatre for her second tour in September and conducted anti-submarine sweeps and shore bombardment missions until truce talks began in November, after which she continued to prowl the Korean coast until March 1953 when she ended her time in the Korean War, returning to San Diego with four battle stars for Korean War service.

Remaining in operation with the US Pacific Fleet for the next seven years, the Kidd and her crews made regular deployments around the Pacific Ocean in US Navy and Allied exercises before heightening tensions in the Atlantic warranted her deployment to the US Atlantic Fleet in 1960. First assigned to the Naval Reserve Force and conducting training missions, the Kidd was called back to serve with US Navy elements in ‘shows of force’ during the Berlin Crisis and off the Dominican Republic in 1961 before she resumed training duties at the Naval Destroyer School through 1964. After a final training cruise to the Caribbean Sea in the Spring of 1964, the Veteran Kidd was decommissioned for the final time on July 1st, 1964, ending 16 years of service.

Placed into the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia, the Kidd was one of three Fletcher Class Destroyers selected by the US Navy for preservation as museum ships after they were stricken from the Naval Register, and in 1982 the State of Louisiana successfully obtained ownership of the Kidd for use as a museum ship. Arriving under tow at Baton Rouge on May 23rd, 1982, the Kidd began her new career as a museum ship and monument to Louisiana’s Veterans.

Today the Kidd is open to the public at the Louisiana Veterans Memorial and often hosts youth group overnight encampments aboard ship. Having never undergone a full-scale modernization during her years in service, the Kidd is now the only remaining example of a Fletcher Class Destroyer in her World War II appearance, and workers at the museum have painstakingly restored her to her August 1945 configuration and armament. The Kidd is in an outstanding state of preservation and material condition today, thanks in part to the effort of museum staff and volunteers and to the Mississippi River’s ebb and flow, which leave the ship high and dry in a specially made drydock for part of the year, allowing for hull preservation, painting and maintenance to take place. Today she is a National Historic Landmark and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

www.usskidd.com/
www.navsource.org/archives/05/661.htm