Harlan Dickson (DD 708) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 17 text:

Piping the side -Com. Desron 12. Our hillbilly bcmcl-Stephens, Hitch and Ens. Cubbuge -Ens. Forbes, critic. Q was written, was Newport, Rhode Island. The Dickson was completed too late to see action during World War II. During her life she has performed all the various duties normally assigned to a destroyer. In addition, she has operated with a mine warfare experimental unit, made two cruises to the Mediterranean, prior to the present one, and served as a training ship for naval reservists for eighteen months, operating out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Worthy of note is the fact that the Dickson was assigned duty with the United Nations at Palestine in December, 1948, and January, 1949, being one of the first units of the United States Armed Forces so employed. The third cruise to the Mediterranean began on March 20,1951 , when the Dickson left New- port. On arrival at Gibraltar, she became part of the United States SIXTH Fleet, a force whose primary purpose is the protection and support of American and United Nations interests in the Mediterranean area. While a member of the Sixth Fleet, she visited the many ports described and pictured here. It is in commemoration of these visits that this book finds its purpose. ll On target and ready ,tw F e y . Afier fueling station.

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L d ng drill-40mm. fer by high-line. DUB HISTIIHY The U.S.S. Dickson was named in honor of Lieutenant Commander Harlan R. Dickson, U. S. Navy, of Washington, D. C. He was a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, and performed duty as a carrier torpedo pilot in most of the areas of aerial combat in the early days of World War II. He was twice decorated with the Navy Cross for heroism and outstanding performance as a torpedo plane pilot, and was killed in action while flying from the U .S.S. Yorktown on Feb- ruary 5, 1944. The keel of the DD708 was laid in Kearney, N. I., and she was jitted out at the .Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was commissioned on February 17, 1945. Her home port at the time this book Af ease -awaiting inspection A recovered drone.

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Our Exec.-Commander Braybrook. I-I EHIIIINIILIIBY UF THE CRUISE March 20, 1951-Departed, Newport, Rhode Island April 2-4--Gibraltar, British Crown Colony April 13-19-Augusta, Sicily April 22-24-Naples, Italy April 26-27-Corfu, Greece May May May July Softball team-time out. July July July April 30-May 1-Patras, Greece 3-7-Istanbul, Turkey 15-19-Naples, Italy 24-29-Augusta, Sicily June 1-8-Piraeus CAthensD Greece June 14-18-Tripoli, Tripolitania June 22-28-Naples, Italy 2-9-Golfe Juan, France 12-16-Genoa, Italy 18-San Remo, Italy 23-29-Rhodes, Dodecanese Islands August 2-Suda Bay, Crete August 9-12-Iraklion, Crete Aug. 18-Sept. 1-Golfe Juan, France Sept. 8-12-Genoa, Italy Sept. 22-26-Lisbon, Portugal Oct. 4-Arrived Newport, R. I. Cdr. Allen bids OOD Witschen farewell. Farewell honors-Commander Allen. Posing with spectators. Cruiser launches her helicopter.