Higbee (DDR 806) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 5 text:

DEDICATED . . . . . . to all the officers and men, past and present, who have served their country aboard the Uf.S'.,S'. HIGBEE

Page 4 text:

i 5 I V I k. i I E I 1 I ! 1 N I 1 X

Page 6 text:

v Ship,S History The U. S. S. I-IIGBEE CDDB 8061 was the first combatant vessel in the history of the U. S. Navy to be named in honor of a woman who served in the Armed Forces. This woman, Mrs. Lenah S. Higbee, was Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps during World War I, and earned the singular honor of being the only woman to receive the Navy Cross while still living. The keel of the I-IIGBFIE was laid 26 Iune 1944 at the Bath Iron Works Cor- poration in Bath Maine, and was com- missioned 27 Ianuary 1945 with Com- mander Lindsey WILLIAMSON, USN, as Commanding Officer. Immediately after being commissioned, the vessel proceeded to Boston, Massachusetts where she was converted into a radar picket destroyer, at that time a new type of naval vessel. After her shakedown cruise, the I-IIGBFFI departed from Boston for the Far East where she joined the famous Carrier Task Force 38 on 19 Iuly 1945. Six days later during a Iapanese air attack, a suicide plane narrowly missed striking her number one gun mount. The new destroyer proved her worth as a combat unit during the engagement by shooting down six enemy planes, four of them in a period of 22 minutes. Later, the HIGBBE supported the air strikes against the Iapanese mainland and was operating off Iapan when that country capitulated. Although the war was ended, floating mines in Iapanese coastal waters remained a menace to navigation, so the I-IIGBFE and other ships of the Task Force were assigned the duty of searching for mines and l exploding them with gunfire. After a brief respite in Tokyo Bay, the vessel ' . departed for San Diego, and arrived there on 11 April 1946, having been away from the United States for almost a year. Underway again on 12 September 1946-with Commander Bruce L. CARB, USN, in command- the I-IIGBEE underwent refresher training and then departed for a tour of duty in the Western Pacific. This cruise took her to various Asian ports, including I-long Kong, Okinawa, and TsingtaO- She' then departed Yokosuka on 31 Iune and after the trans-pacific cruise, moored in San DiGQO I-Iarbor on 6 Iuly 1947. Commander Iames E. I-IANSFN, USN, relieved as Commanding Officer and the ship sailed to San Francisco for an overhaul at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. The overhaul completed, the HIGBEE steamed once again for the Orient in company with the heavy cruiser TOLEDO to PGY official visits to the governments of India and Pakistan. Ports of call on this cruise included Singa- pore, Trincomalee Con the island of Ceylonl, Karachi, and Bombay. The HIGBEE returned to her home port, San Diego, in February 1949, having logged more than 43,000 miles in a little less than eight months. S The I-IIGBEFI departed in Iune 1949 in company with several other vessels on a Beserve Midship- man Training Cruise to Panama, conducting drills and maneuvers, and providing general indoctrin- ation for the officer candidates. -ZM