Figure 1: USS Basilone (DDE-824) underway in Boston Harbor at Boston, Massachusetts, 21 July 1949. Photographed by R.A. Halverson, Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Basilone (DDE-824) underway in Boston Harbor at Boston, Massachusetts, 21 July 1949. Photographed by R.A. Halverson, Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Basilone (DDE-824) underway in Boston Harbor at Boston, Massachusetts, 21 July 1949. Photographed by R.A. Halverson, Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Basilone (DDE-824) comes alongside USS Albemarle (AV-4) to transfer personnel, 24 February 1960. Photographed by Ozizkonski. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Basilone (DDE-824) underway at sea, circa the later 1950s or early 1960s. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Valley Forge (CVS-45) steaming in formation with Destroyer Squadron 36, during anti-submarine exercises with the Atlantic Fleet's Task Group ALFA, 6 November 1958. The destroyers are (from top): USS Basilone (DDE-824); USS Damato (DDE-871); USS Robert L. Wilson (DDE-847); USS Harold J. Ellison (DD-864); USS Holder (DDE-819) and USS New (DDE-818). Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: View looking forward from astern of USS Basilone (DD-824), taken at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in March 1964 as Basilone was completing her FRAM I conversion. Note the crane barge alongside. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Basilone (DD-824) underway off Oahu, Hawaii, in February 1966. Taken by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class (AC) C.A. Komperda, of Composite Squadron One (VC-1). Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Basilone (DD-824) operating off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 17 February 1966. Photographed by Komperda. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Basilone (DD-824) underway at sea, circa the later 1960s or early 1970s. This photograph may have been taken by USS America (CVA-66). Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Sacramento (AOE-1), center, replenishing the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), at right, and the destroyer USS Basilone (DD-824), left, in the South China Sea, 13 April 1966. Taken by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class J.L. Rivera, USN. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Basilone (DD-824) underway in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, 3 January 1972. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS Basilone (DD-824) receives assistance from the harbor tug Cochali (YTM-383) as she arrives at Newport, Rhode Island, on 6 February 1973. While operating in the Atlantic on the previous day, Basilone had sustained a boiler explosion that took the lives of three of her crew and injured eight more. Taken by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Troy A. Lewiston. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: Jacket patch used after USS Basilone (DD-824) was re-designated from DDE to DD in 1962. The central part of the emblem and the ribbon at top containing the ship's name were adopted in 1961, while Basilone was still a DDE. Its design features crossed cutlasses and a trident, traditional naval symbols, superimposed by a shield with waves of blue on white and a naval crown, both ancient symbols of the sea and its men. The Latin motto "Triumphus Supra Invisum" is translated "Victory Over the Unseen," reflecting Basilone's primary mission of anti-submarine warfare. The background shield, featuring the national colors (blue field with red and white stripes), was added sometime between 1962 and 1970. Courtesy of Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1970. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone (1916-1945), who received the Medal of Honor for defending Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, USS Basilone (DD-824) was a 2,425-ton Gearing class destroyer that was launched by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas, in July 1945, just two months before the end of the war in the Pacific. The ship remained inactive for more than two years before the US Navy decided to convert her into an escort destroyer (DDE). The ship was towed to the Bethlehem Steel Company at Quincy, Massachusetts, for completion and Basilone was armed specifically for anti-submarine warfare missions. Once completed, the ship was approximately 390 feet long and 40 feet wide, had a top speed of 34.6 knots, and had a crew of 345 officers and men. Basilone’s original armament was to have consisted of six 5-inch guns (in three twin gun mounts), four 3-inch guns, eight 20-mm cannons, depth charges, and four 21-inch torpedo tubes, but this changed drastically when the ship was converted into a DDE. One of her original trio of five-inch twin gun mounts and all of her torpedo tubes were replaced with new anti-submarine weapons, including the Weapon ABLE rocket launcher and trainable mounts for Hedgehog spigot mortars. Basilone was formally re-designated DDE-824 on 28 January 1948 and was commissioned on 26 July 1949.
After a shakedown cruise off the coast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Basilone joined the Atlantic Fleet. She patrolled the western Atlantic and the Caribbean before being sent to the Mediterranean and, occasionally, to northern Europe. Basilone spent several years with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and was present in that troubled part of the world during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis and during the US intervention in Lebanon in 1958. On 7 August 1962, Basilone once again was reclassified and returned to her original designation as a destroyer, DD-824. Then in October 1962, Basilone participated in the naval “quarantine,” or blockade, of Cuba during the missile crisis with that island nation.
From July 1963 to April 1964, Basilone was completely overhauled and received extensive modifications in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She underwent a “FRAM I” destroyer modernization and obtained a new superstructure, an eight-cell ASROC anti-submarine rocket launcher, and a small landing pad, hangar, and facilities for an anti-submarine helicopter. In 1964, she started the first of what would be, over the next thirteen years, eight more tours of duty with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. During this period of time, Basilone completed two trips around the world (in 1966 and 1972) and was deployed off the coast of Vietnam.
In 1966, Basilone was assigned to Task Force 77 on Dixie Station off South Vietnam. She served as the plane guard for the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and also provided gunfire support of US troops on shore. After briefly being placed on “picket” duty in the Gulf of Tonkin, Basilone went to Subic Bay, the Philippines, for provisions. On 9 April 1966, she returned to Vietnam, this time on Yankee Station off the coast of North Vietnam. After spending several days on Yankee Station, Basilone steamed south again on 7 May and actually went up the Saigon River and bombarded Communist Viet Cong targets on 24 May. After leaving the Saigon River, the ship spent several more weeks bombarding Viet Cong positions. Basilone returned to Subic Bay on 4 July and, after stopping there briefly, returned to the United States for an overhaul. She arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, on 17 August.
After serving with the Sixth Fleet for several more years, Basilone returned to Vietnam on 7 July 1972. She was assigned to plane guard duties with the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34) and on 23 July approached the coast of Vietnam near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) for gunfire support missions. After participating in several gunfire support missions for troops on shore, Basilone steamed back to the Philippines on 10 August.
After serving in Vietnam, Basilone conducted numerous “good will” visits to ports all over the Middle East and the Mediterranean. But, like many of the Navy’s ships during the 1960s and 1970s, Basilone had major problems with her steam powerplant. On 5 February 1973, a large boiler explosion on board the ship killed three crewmen and injured eight more. After being repaired, the destroyer resumed operations six months later and went on to serve in the active fleet for another four years. After completing her final Mediterranean deployment, USS Basilone was decommissioned on 1 November 1977. She escaped being scrapped by being used as a target for missile-firing exercises and was sunk on 9 April 1982 in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 80 miles east of St. Augustine, Florida.