Alfred A Cunningham (DD 752) - Naval Cruise Book

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BENJAMIN F. URAN, LT. COMMANDER, U.S.N. Executive Officer

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The evening of the launching was clear, the party assembled at exactly 8:20 P.M. wartime. The crowd of 2,500 waited for the final moment. Then at 8:35 P.M. wartime on Thursday, the third of August 1944, the sponsor, as designated by the Secretary of the Navy, Mrs. Alfred A. Cunningham, launched the destroyer 752 at Staten Island New York, and gave to it the name of her late husband who gained wide fame and recognition as being the first pilot of the United States Marine Corps. He was one of the great leaders and organizers of early military aviation. A few months later, midst the celebration of Thanksgiving Day on 23 November 1944, the commission pennant was broken at the fore- truck and the 752 became part of the fleet under Commander Floyd B.T. Mhyre. Then came proper shakedown, training, and the finishing touches. Soon afterwards, by way of the Panama Canal, the U.S.S. Alfred A. Cunningham departed to join a carrier task force for a strike on Wake Island. After a successful attack on Wake, the Task Force proceded westward through Guam, Ulithe, and the Philippine Islands. The Cunningham was now ready for the test of real battle which soon came on a trip north to Okinawa where she was assigned station as a Radar Pickett. Near the closing of the war the white planes of peace carrying the Japanese Emissarys to General MacArthur were first detected and reported by the Alfred A. Cunningham. After the peace was signed, her duties were aiding in the occupation of China and the repatriation of prisoners-of-war. Through the Yellow Sea she made many journeys of peace and good will. Then on the glorious morning of 28 March 1946, the Alfred A. Cunningham proudly passed under the Golden Gate Bridge. Home again to rest and to become a part of the newly formed reserve fleet in San Francisco, later to be transferred to San Diego. Soon after the outbreak of the Korean situation, the Navy Depart- ment removed the Cunningham from a reserve status and hurriedly activated her into her former fighting condition. On the sunny after- noon of 5 October 1950 the Alfred A. Cunningham was recomissioned at San Diego, California, and again became an active part of the United States Navy under the command of Commander Louis P. Spear. Again a shakedown and training program was needed, and was quickly carried out in the warm waters off southern California.