USS Kidd - Fletcher Class Destroyer

[NewsShooter]

While in Louisiana last month we ran up to Baton Rouge to visit some friends and relatives and toured the USS Kidd. It's a Fletcher Class destroyer from World War II that survived a Kamikazi attack and is now a military museum.

A special mooring platform allows the ship to float when the Mississippi River is high, and rest on a cradle when the water is low.


Looking aft on the Port side, this is near where the Kamikazi plane hit.


This is the Mess Decks, where meals are served. If you'll look on the far wall you'll see racks (bunks). No room is wasted on board ship. After all the meals, the mess decks double as sleeping quarters.


This is the CIC or Combat Information Center. This is where I worked on board ship, but my ship being newer, had a little more room than this.

[Deleted]

It looks very familiar since I served on DD-652, USS Ingersoll.

edited to add re Ingersoll:

Commissioned at Boston Navy Yard 31 August 1943.
Supplanted by DD-990 now also out of commission.
Displacement 2924 Tons (Full), Dimensions, 376' 5"(oa) x 39' 7" x 13' 9" (Max)
Armament 5 x 5"/38AA, 4 x 1.1" AA, 4 x 20mm AA, 10 x 21" tt.(2x5).
Machinery, 60,000 SHP; General Electric Geared Turbines, 2 screws
Speed, 38 Knots, Range 6500 NM@ 15 Knots, Crew 273.
Operational and Building Data
Laid down by Bath Iron Woks, Bath ME February 18 1943.
Launched June 28 1943 and commissioned August 31 1943.
Decommissioned July 19 1946, recommissioned May 4 1951.
Decommissioned January (?) 1970.
Stricken January 20 1970.
Fate Sunk as target May 19 1974.

[NewsShooter]

Impressive.

Mine was built in New Orleans, just like me. In fact, I was the first New Orleanian to serve on the USS Moinester FF-1097 (re-classified from DE-1097) so they gave me the first chart the ship ever used, to navigate out of the shipyards and down the Mississippi.