Porterfield (DD 682) - Naval Cruise Book

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i i X I If ff , ,A iw fr, it .V F, X 'W Q N M L 71, X yyay I f ff V , f f ' 7,2 V' W j ' f ,X f, QW V Z HIP' HI TORY On 13 June 1943 at Terminal Island, California a brand new destroyer slid down the ways to take her place in the United States Fleet. Named after Admiral Lewis Broughton Porterfield and sponsored by his widow, a bottle of champagne crashed over her proud prow and she became the U. S. S. PGRTERFIELD QDD 682j, destined to become one of the most colorful ships in the fleet, another tin can ready to take her place in history as one of Uncle Sam's fearless Greyhounds of the Sea. C35 Z

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DEDI T10 We are Destroyermen! A 44 big ship man would have trouble filling our shoes, and We like to think we would have no trouble filling his. We have learned the lesson of self reliance, of not being afraid of a little rough living or any tough assignment. When things are getting too tough and hard for anyone else, they're getting just right for us. When there's a job to be done on the double, give it to the destroyer navy. The small boys can shove oif on thirty minutes notice and proceed to the rendezvous alone. With every man on board doing his duty, there are no eight hour days and no five day weeks, but the work of steaming the ship will make shipmates closer than brothers. To the spirit of our ship and the service she renders we respectfully dedicate this book. i25

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Immediately upon commissioning she received her new, and mostly green crew. and headed for the war against Japan, where she earned the hard way, eight campaign bars, nine battle stars and suffered seventeen major casualties from enemy fire. During her various operations from Hollandia, New Guinea to Japan, she escorted the first carrier task group to strike Tokyo since Major Doolittle in 19412. Members of her various crews in World War II received one Silver Star, four Navy aud Marine Corps Medals, three Bronze Stars, and seventeen Purple Hearts. Upon returning home after the cessation of hostilities, she was temporarily retired to an inactive status until April 1951 when she was recommissioned. This time PORTERFIELD was assigned to the U. N. Forces in Korea where she again performed in an admirable manner tackling all the routine jobs that these valiant ships are required to carry out. During this period she received another campaign bar, three battle stars and suffered a direct hit from a 75 mm enemy shore battery, but patched her self up and continued the assault on the east Korean shore. Since Korea she has spent approximately six months a year in the Orient undergoing extensive training exercises in gunnery and anti-submarine warfare. Countries visited on these WestPac tours include Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Okinawa. In her naval career PORTERFIELD has traveled some 500,000 miles under eight com- manding oflicers and several crews, all of them 44 hard working , 44 hard playing and 44 hard fighting 'i navy men. She has been battered unmercifully by the seas she was born to and still carries permanent scars from enemy fire, but be it the sea, the wind or the enemy, this intrepid prowler of the deep will be in there fighting. C45