DESTROYERS

Your Navy stands ready to defend the United States and to go to the aid
of our  Allies should a world emergency arise.  It was a great deterrent to
Communist aggression against this country.

The USS KENNETH D. BAILEY was but a small part of the U.S. Navy. However, it is
representative of your Navy since it is manned by men from all parts of the country...men who
constantly train to make their ship the best fighting unit possible. Furthermore, the mission of a
destroyer is similar to all warships in the U.S. Navy. It is an extremely mobile gun platform
that can move over the 70 per cent of the earth’s surface that is covered with water.

In the past, present and future destroyer type ships have a vital role in the defense of the United
States. The destroyer force is now, and always will be on the front lines in keeping open
free commerce, the sea lanes of the world.

In any war, destroyers are key ships of the fleet. In World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam,
destroyers proved themselves as the best all-purpose weapon afloat. Relatively economical
and easy to produce, destroyers have been in the front-line of sea actions of all kinds
in the past and will be in the future.

The general submarine threat in World War I brought home the necessity for a versatile small
warship capable of keeping open the sea lanes between the United States and Europe.
Destroyers were the answer and they saw action in 1917 and 1918 with hastily trained crews.

Before the entry of the United States into WW II, our destroyers saw action. Destroyer
Reuben James (DD-245) was torpedoed and sunk while on Atlantic patrol in October, 1941.

On Dec. 7, 1941, a destroyer sunk a small Japanese submarine off Pearl Harbor. Other destroyers
accounted for Japanese aircraft. Starting then, our destroyers and destroyer escorts proved their
worth convoying hundreds of merchant ships across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean.
In the Pacific, they protected our ever-expanding fast carrier task forces, sinking submarines
and shooting down attacking enemy planes. They bombarded enemy shores before amphibious
 landings, they convoyed our lengthening lifeline of supplies to captured islands.
Destroyers ventured deep into enemy waters to sink shipping
and bombard strategic airfields and supply points.

In the Korean war, destroyers kept up a continuous blockade of North Korea and with naval
gunfire cut coastal rail and communications lines. They performed equally as well in Vietnam.

At present, the Destroyer Force stands alert and ready to go into action in a national emergency.
Our destroyers are on guard in the Mediterranean and in North Atlantic waters.
They simulate wartime fleet operations, training as units and with task forces.
Their training operations range the width and length of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

These very fast and maneuverable ships will again be given the mission of protecting our
coastlines and spearheading the naval forces that will necessarily be called into action
 should aggression ever again threaten the freedom and security of this country.

DESTROYERMEN

The requirements for being a destroyer sailor are many. He must be tough, have endurance,
and split-second reactions. He must be adaptable, compatable and above-average in intelligence.
He must have common sense, understanding and patience.

All of these are necessary to live and work in a small ship, often at sea for long periods.

Destroyermen are proud, for they know that they man a warship that is designed only to attack.
The ship’s hull is only thick enough to carry the weight of the guns and
other armament and the men that man them.

And destroyermen are proud for another reason. They are truly seagoing men. Every destroyer
sailor comes to know and respect the sea, and at times, fear it.

Destroyermen are from every state in the Union and are of all faiths. They are proud to wear the
uniform of a navy, ready to protect the freedom and security of the United States.

Admiral Arleigh Burke once said, "Destroyermen have always been proud people.
They have been the elite.  They have to be proud people and they have
 to be specially selected, for destroyer life is a rugged one.

It takes stamina to stand up to the rigors of a tossing destroyer.
  It takes even more spiritual stamina to keep going with enthusiasm when you are tired
and you feel that you and your ship are being used as a workhorse.

 It is true that many people take destroyers for granted and that is all the more
 reason why the destroyer Captain can be proud of their accomplishment."

TIN CAN SAILOR

There's a roll and a pitch, a heave and a pitch
To the nautical gait they take,
For they're used to the cant of the quarterdeck's slant
As the white toothed combers break
On the plates that hum like a beaten drum
To the thrill of the turbins might,
As the knife bow leaps through the foamy deep
With the speed of a shell in flight.
Oh, their scorn is deep for the crews who keep
To the battleship's steady floor
For they love the lurch of their own frail perch
At thirty five knots or more.
They don't get much of the drill and such
That the battleship sailors do
For they sail the seas in dungarees
A grey destroyer's crew.
They need not climb at their sleeping time
To a hammock that sways and bumps
For they leap kerplunk into a cozy bunk
That quivers and bucks and jumps.
They hear the sound of the seas that pound
On the half inch plates of steel
And they close their eyes to the lullabies
Of the creaking sides and keel.
They're a lusty crowd that's vastly proud
Of the slim grey craft they drive
Of the roaring flues and the humming screws
Which make her a thing alive.
They love the lunge of her surging plunge
And the murk of her smokescreen too.
As they sail the seas in their dungarees
A grey destroyer's crew.