USS Hazelwood (DD-531) after being hit by a kamikaze off Okinawa, 29 April 1945 - her later history is below

USS Hazelwood (DD-531) after being hit by a kamikaze off Okinawa, 29 April 1945

USS Hazelwood (DD-531) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy The ship was the second named for Commodore John Hazelwood; a naval leader in the American Continental Navy.

Okinawa[edit]

Returning to Ulithi 1 March, the battle-tried destroyer sailed again for action 14 March with a fast carrier force to provide air cover and shore bombardment for the invasion of Okinawa, last step before invasion of the Japanese home islands. After the invasion 1 April, Hazelwood operated off Okinawa on radar picket and escort patrols through intense Japanese air attacks. On 29 April, the carrier group she was shepherding was attacked by kamikazes who dove out of low cloud cover.

Hazelwood after the Kamikaze hit off Okinawa.

Hazelwood, all guns blazing, maneuvered to avoid two of the Zeros. A third screamed out of the clouds from astern. Although hit by Hazelwood’s fire, the enemy plane careened past the superstructure. It hit #2 stack on the port side, smashed into the bridge, and exploded. Flaming gasoline spilled over the decks and bulkheads as the mast toppled and the forward guns were put out of action. Ten officers and 67 men were killed, including the Commanding Officer, Cmdr. V. P. Douw, and 36 were missing. Hazelwood’s engineering officer, Lt. (j.g.) C. M. Locke, took command and directed her crew in fighting the damage and aiding wounded. Proceeding by tow and part way under her own power, the gallant ship reached Ulithi 5 May for temporary repairs, then sailed to Mare Island Naval Shipyard via Pearl Harbor 14 June for permanent repairs. Hazelwood decommissioned 18 January 1946 and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego, California.

Post War service[edit]

Hazelwood in 1960, fitted with the experimental flight deck.

Hazelwood recommissioned at San Diego 12 September 1951, Cmdr. R. M. Niles in command, to participate in the Korean War. After shakedown she departed San Diego 4 January 1952, and reached Newport, Rhode Island, 21 January to join Destroyer Forces, Atlantic Fleet. Operations and exercises along the East Coast and in the Caribbean, as well as hunter-killer training with carrier groups, occupied Hazelwood until she departed Newport for the Far East 7 December 1953.

She reached Tokyo 12 January 1954, via Pearl Harbor and spent the next few months operating with a fast carrier task force and patrolling along the Korean coast to enforce an uneasy armistice. The far-ranging destroyer returned to the States the long way, departing Hong Kong 28 May 1954 and sailing through the Suez Canal to reach Newport 17 July.

During the next few years, Hazelwood maintained a pattern of training and readiness operations along the East Coast and in the Caribbean interspersed with deployments to the Mediterranean. During the Suez Crisis in the fall of 1956 she served with the mighty 6th Fleet, patrolling the eastern Mediterranean and helping to stabilize a tense international situation.

A DASH-drone over Hazelwood´s flight deck.

In 1958, Hazelwood began extensive testing of helicopters for antisubmarine warfare both in Narragansett Bay and out of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Maryland. Assigned to the Destroyer Development Division, she participated in tests on equipment used with radar and electronic counter-measure systems. Her primary research and development work involved the testing of the Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH). Hazelwood provided on board testing facilities, and helped make possible the perfection of DASH, an advanced and vital ASW weapons system. In August 1963 alone, the drone helicopter made 1,000 landings on the versatile destroyer's flight deck.

In addition to experimental developments, Hazelwood continued to engage in the many duties assigned to a destroyer. As America confronted Russia over the introduction of offensive missiles into Cuba in October 1962, she steamed again to the troubled Caribbean for antisubmarine and surveillance patrols. Hazelwood arrived Guantanamo Naval Base 5 November, just after the quarantine of Cuba had gone into effect and remained on guard during the crisis, serving as a Gun Fire Support Ship for Task Force 84. When the nuclear submarine Thresher failed to surface 10 April 1963, Hazelwood immediately deployed to the scene of the tragedy with scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to begin a systematic search for the missing ship.

Hazelwood resumed testing of DASH during June and later in the year conducted on board trials of the Shipboard Landing Assist Device (SLAD). She continued both developmental and tactical operations along the East Coast during the next year. She decommissioned 19 March 1965, and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Hazelwood was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 1 December 1974 and sold 14 April 1976.