We’ll always cover museum ships here on the blog and a pair of preserved greyhounds have some important recent updates.
First, the USS Kidd (DD-661)— one of just three Fletchers on display in the U.S. and by far the one that is in the most “WWII correct” condition– closed to the public on 24 April as she left her Baton Rouge berth along the banks of the Mississippi for the first time since 1982, bound for the Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors (TMC) shipyard in Houma, Louisiana, for her first major dry dock preservation project since leaving Navy custody.
Second, to honor the famed USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), the destroyer escort that “fought like a battleship” and heroically charged the Japanese fleet with the destroyers of Taffy 3, the only member of her class preserved in America, USS Stewart (DE-238), has recently been repainted in a WWII camo scheme that approximates Measure 32.
As noted by the Galveston Naval Museum:
We are painting the USS Stewart in Sammy B’s camouflage pattern in honor of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle off Samar. Our mission is to tell the story. There are no other DEs that can render such a tangible honor to one of the greatest fighting ships in American history. Our goal is to ensure that American schoolchildren will know the name Samuel B Roberts, and why America is a Nation worth fighting for.