USS Van Valkenburgh (DD-656) was a of the United States Navy, named for Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh (1888–1941), captain of the battleship when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Van Valkenburgh was laid down on 15 November 1942 at Chickasaw, Alabama, by the Gulf Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 19 December 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Marguerite Van Valkenburgh, widow of Capt. Van Valkenburgh; and commissioned at the Alabama State Docks, Mobile, Alabama, on 2 August 1944. The ensign hoisted upon commissioning that afternoon was the same that had flown above Arizonas fantail at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941.
World War II Van Valkenburgh conducted trials and structural firing tests after her initial fitting-out period, and while returning from her gunnery tests on 7 August, received a request for help from the Army tug LT-18. The destroyer altered course and soon came across the disabled tug, with three barges laden with explosives in tow. Van Valkenburgh patrolled on various courses around LT-18, standing by to render assistance if necessary, until help arrived early on the 8 August. Returning to Mobile, the destroyer continued the fitting-out process before getting underway for Bermuda on 20 August.
Van Valkenburgh conducted her shakedown training out of Great Sound, Bermuda, into late September, and on 26 September, she headed for Charleston, South Carolina, and postshakedown availability. Shifting to Hampton Roads soon thereafter, the destroyer conducted training evolutions before meeting with the light cruiser on 22 October.
Van Valkenburgh escorted that new light cruiser to the Panama Canal Zone and transited the Panama Canal on 27 October. At Balboa, joined the two warships, and the three continued on together, bound for San Diego, California. Between 10 and 16 November, they escorted a convoy of troop transports to the Hawaiian Islands, conducting training operations off Lanai, Maui, before arriving at Pearl Harbor on 17 November.
Van Valkenburgh subsequently operated out of Pearl Harbor, engaging in an intensive slate of training activities. She made practice torpedo runs, antiaircraft firings, and shore bombardments—exercises occurring in such an endless parade that it moved a Van Valkenburgh sailor to write that "the real thing could be no more of a strain."
Battle of Iwo Jima Van Valkenburgh trained in Hawaiian waters through the end of December 1944, and after a tender availability alongside , headed for the western Pacific and her first combat operation, departing Pearl Harbor on 27 January 1945. After touching at Eniwetok en route, the destroyer reached Saipan in the Mariana Islands, where dress rehearsals were held for the landings slated to take place on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. After two days of exercises at Saipan, the fleet sortied for Iwo Jima.
The morning of 19 February dawned gray and wet as the force reached their objective. Van Valkenburgh soon commenced her patrols as part of the three-deep screen around the unloading transports and took her turn at firing gunfire support for the marines ashore. For a week off Iwo, the destroyer alternately screened, escorted, and bombarded.
As transports and freighters unloaded their holds and disembarked their mottle-garbed marines, Van Valkenburgh received orders to escort a group of empty ships back to the Marianas. After shepherding a group to Saipan, Van Valkenburgh returned to Iwo Jima at noon on 3 March. Five days later, she made another trip to Saipan, returning on 18 March to resume screening duties as escort for an amphibious group.
Battle of Okinawa After joining that unit, Van Valkenburgh participated in landing rehearsals and exercises on neighboring Tinian and learned that the destination for that group was Okinawa, in the Ryūkyū chain, only from the enemy's homeland. On 27 March, as part of Task Group 51.2, Van Valkenburgh sailed for her second combat operation.
Van Valkenburghs group was ordered to feint a landing on the southwest coast of the island to draw off the Japanese defenders, while the main force approached from the west. On the morning of 1 April, while the "Demonstration Group" gathered off the southern beaches, the 6th Army and several marine units splashed ashore on the western side of the island.
"While opposition on land was slow in gathering", wrote Van Valkenburghs ship's historian, "air opposition was immediate." As the destroyer made her sweep close inshore, a kamikaze attacked , a ship loaded with ammunition and an embarked detachment of marines. Fortunately, the plane carried no bomb, but holed the ship near the waterline forward, starting fires in the double bottom. Van Valkenburgh stood by LST-884 for eight hours, sending the stricken ship a fire-and-rescue party and fire-fighting equipment under the command of Lt. Comdr. W. Brown (attached to the staff of Capt. W. D. Chandler, screen commander embarked in Van Valkenburgh) to aid in fighting the blazes. Due in large part to the work of Brown's party, the fires were extinguished, and in spite of an initially dangerous starboard list, LST-884 reached Kerama Retto under tow. Three officers and 15 enlisted men from the destroyer received decorations, the highest being Silver Stars to Lt. Comdr. Brown and Lt. J. D. McCormich, USNR.
On 4 April, Van Valkenburgh retired almost to the east of Okinawa with the feint group, whose maneuvers had accomplished their purpose. That group remained as a floating reserve, occasionally detaching transports to disembark their needed troops and marines on Okinawa, until they sailed back to the Marianas, reaching Saipan on 15 April. Four days later, Van Valkenburgh returned to Okinawa and spent the initial part of that tour in the inner screen, patrolling the transport area just off the beach. "The first night ...", the destroyer's commanding officer recounted, "... we had 18 raids and not one of them turned out to be friendly."
As Van Valkenburgh subsequently entered the anchorage at Kerama Retto, a group of small, rocky islands off the southwestern coast of Okinawa, her men saw the after-effects of other ships' encounters with the "Special Attack Corps", or, the kamikaze. After seeing the devastation wrought by the suicide planes, Van Valkenburgh headed out to report and relieve on radar picket station 14, as support ship to . The radar picket was to the northwest of Okinawa, and was in the words of Van Valkenburgh'''s commanding officer, "more nearly in the direction of Japan than anywhere else." The proximity to Japanese air bases soon became evident. Within six hours of her assuming station, the local combat air patrol (CAP), controlled by Wickes, had shot down 21 planes. Van Valkenburgh herself accounted for another and assisted in destroying a second.Van Valkenburgh also went to the aid of a second kamikaze victim, , which was hit by a flaming suicide plane and sank immediately. The destroyer picked up the ship's survivors, and her doctor, assisted by his pharmacist's mates, worked into the wee hours of the morning on the wounded, some of them badly burned.
Over half of the following 63 days the destroyer spent in Okinawan waters were spent on one of the 15 stations surrounding the island itself. The radar picket ships not only provided an early warning of the approach of enemy aircraft or surface units, but also drew fire. The Japanese concentrated their kamikaze attacks on the picket line of destroyers and smaller units such as LCIs and LCSs. During those weeks, no one rested. Few, if any, of the crew even bothered to undress when attempting sleep. Most slept fully clothed, awaiting the general quarters alarm. Van Valkenburgh experienced at least two general quarters alarms per night, often four or five times between 21:00 and dawn. As soon as it was light, Corsairs of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing based ashore reported for duty on each station, joining with carrier-based aircraft to form the CAP.
On 28 April, within a week of her rescue of the survivors of LCS-15, Van Valkenburgh made her third "Good Samaritan" trip. and , on RP-1, drew the ire of a determined group of suiciders. Daly suffered heavy casualties when a kamikaze, plummeting downward, exploded just before it was about to crash the bridge on the port side. Among those killed by the shrapnel and flying debris was the ship's doctor.Van Valkenburgh went alongside Daly and transferred her doctor, Lt. M. E. Smale, to her stricken sister ship, along with Pharmacist's Mate 3d Class Charles B. Reed, to attend the wounded. Since neither Daly nor the other damaged ship required any further assistance, Van Valkenburgh returned to her station and later embarked Doctor Smale and Pharmacist's Mate Reed at Kerama Retto.
Between her tours on the radar picket stations, Van Valkenburgh received upkeep back at Kerama Retto and conducted one shore-bombardment mission. It was a one-night assignment at Buckner Bay, where she blasted pockets of Japanese resistance on the southern tip of Okinawa. The next day, however, she steamed back to the picket line.
The busiest time for Van Valkenburgh came on the evening of 17 May, when in company with and a group of four LCIs, she was on patrol on RP-9. The CAP had just returned to base, and the group wondered when they could secure from the evening alert when suddenly the word came: "Several planes approaching from the west—very low—on the deck." Over the next 30 minutes, a "melee" took place. "Apparently", Van Valkenburgh's commanding officer recalled, "we were marked for 'liquidation' that night as RP-10 had been on the night of the sinking of the ." With "everybody for himself", Van Valkenburgh twisted and turned, maneuvering while firing with every gun that could be brought to bear. At one point, five blips appeared on the radar screen within a radius.
Two Japanese planes splashed—victims of Van Valkenburghs direct fire—one only off the fantail. Douglas H. Fox splashed two more, and the pair of destroyers teamed up for a fifth kill. Unfortunately for Douglas H. Fox, one kamikaze found its mark, crashing that destroyer's forward gun mount.Van Valkenburgh closed on her stricken sister and rendered what aid she could. While thus engaged, she diverted her attention long enough to lay down a barrage to discourage a seventh Japanese pilot "who appeared to be calculating his chances in on the attractive target of the two slow-moving destroyers." At a range of , the plane suddenly disappeared from the radar screen, and Van Valkenburgh claimed that her antiaircraft fire had scored again. After assisting Douglas H. Fox, Van Valkenburgh patrolled the area to search for possible missing men. The night prowl proved fruitless, but the ship was later relieved to hear that only one man of the stricken destroyer's complement remained unaccounted for.
Subsequently, Van Valkenburgh was deployed to RP-16, in company with , and spent a relatively quiet patrol until her radar picked up the approach of , en route to relieve Robert H. Smith. While Shubrick was still some away and as Van Valkenburgh was about to secure from general quarters, the latter's radar picked up two low-flying bogies, 10 miles to the north and closing.Van Valkenburgh and Robert H. Smith cleared for action, but the pair of planes turned and headed for the newcomer, Shubrick. Van Valkenburgh passed a warning to her sister ship, but too late. At 00:10 on 29 May, one of the two enemy aircraft crashed Shubrick astern. Van Valkenburghs lookouts saw the splash of fire in the predawn darkness and heard the "crump" of the explosion.