Walke (DD 723) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 10 text:

LOOKING BACK . . . On October 5, 1950, the U,S.S. WALKE QDD 7231 was called out of a well earned retirement to once again give her full assistance in settling an argument . . . this time in KOREA! Settling arguments is nothing new for the name, WALKE. In the Mexican and Civil Wars, Rear Adrnrial Henry Walke, USN, did such an excellent job that the country and Navy have remembered him when naming three ships. The first WALKE QDD 3001 was one of the first oil burning destroyers in the fleet. It was stricken from the list of naval ships in 1935. The second WALKE QDD 4161 distinguished itself in the Battle of Guadalcanal and was sunk in that famous battle on November 13, 1942. The present WALKE QDD 7231 was built at the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine. Between her commissioning date at the Charleston Navy Yard on 21 January 1944, and the date she was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego, California, in June, 1947, she pounded the enemy from Europe to the far reaches of the Pacific. After finishing her job in the invasion of Southern France and Cherbourg she steamed to the Pacific in time to take part in the Mindoro and Luzon landings in the Philippines, the Okinawa campaign, and finally, Operation Cross- roads. In the Luzon invasion while fight- ing doggedly under the very able command of Commander George Fleming Davis, USN, the WALKE suffered her first damage when one of four Kamikazes got through her curtain of steel and crashed into the bridge. Fourteen men were killed and forty were wounded. Among those killed was Commander Davis. He was posthumously awarded the Congres- sional Medal of Honor. . . . blasted the port quarter

Page 9 text:

DEDICATION We dedzcate thzs book descrzbzng the WALK E S second Korean cruzse to our loved ones who wazted anxzously or us to complete a war mzsszon on a destroyer tzes each tzme zt had gone orth ln de ense o our country Thezr azth was rewarded zn the safe return of the WALKE and her crew . . It which had suffered damage and casual- . . . It . F f f - ' f '

Page 11 text:

THE PRESENT U.s.s. WALKE QDD my On June 12, 1951, while operating off the east coast of Korea near Wonsan with Task Force 77 in support of the United Nations Forces ashore, a terrific underwater explosion blasted the port quarter of the WALKE, killing twenty-six men and injuring Qvty, the greatest naval casualties suffered so far in the Korean ar. After receiving temporary repairs in Sasebo, Japan, the WALKE returned to the United States for major overhaul and spent six months in the naval shipyard in San Francisco in prep- aration for her second cruise in the Korean conflict. In June of 1952, after four months of shakedown training in the San Diego area, the WALKE, and the rest of Destroyer Division 132 headed west to go east . . . the FAR EAST . . . to once again put in her lethal points of argument against the foes of democracy who had chosen the peace loving peninsula of Korea and its surrounding waters as a battleground. But first, meet the officers and men who manned the WALKE on her SECDND KOREAN CRUISE . . .