December 20, 2017
The USS Kidd was launched February 28, 1943. It’s one of 175 Fletcher class destroyers built between 1942 and 1944 designed to attack surface vessels, submarines and aircraft. She is 378 feet long.
The Mississippi rises and falls about 30 feet in the course of a year so part of the year the Kidd rests on supports.
The Kidd earned eight battle stars in the Pacific and four in the Korean conflict. Missions included Wake Island, Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and Guam. She was part of the force dispatched to respond to the Berlin crisis in 1961.
On April 11, 1945, a Kamikaze attack off Okinawa killed 38 and wounded 55 of the ship’s crew.
Pieces of the Mitsubishi “zero” taken from the wreckage on the Kidd.
The ship’s doctor took the picture of the Kamikaze plane as it attacked the Kidd. His first-person account is above.
Armaments
5″ gun
Charging cylinders for 5″ gun mount
Firing apparatus for 5″ gun mount
40 mm anti-aircraft guns
50 caliber machine guns
Depth charge projector. These charges were lobbed over the rails and would detonate when they reached a specified depth, hopefully taking out an enemy vessel.
Steam-powered torpedoes
Operations
Emergency radio room
Pilot house
Radio operator’s room
Steering control
Living Aboard
Galley
Officers’ mess
Enlisted men’s bunks
Officer’s bunks
On a destroyer, space is at such a premium that sleeping and working are often the same space.
Crew toilets. Seawater flowed constantly in the trough.
Officers’ sinks
Sick bay
History
The Kidd was named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Sr., who was killed aboard the U.S.S. Arizona in the attack on Pearl Habor in 1941.
The ship has an exhibit acknowledging each of the Fletcher class destroyers, showing when and where it was built and what happened to it. When available, artifacts are provided.
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