U.S.S. Stansbury
USS Stansbury, a 1060-ton Little class destroyer built at San Francisco, California, was placed in commission in January 1920. Designated DD-180 when the Navy implemented its hull number system in July of that year, the destroyer served along the Pacific Coast until May 1922, when she was decommissioned and laid up at San Diego, California. Stansbury remained inactive for more than eighteen years, returning to commissioned status in August 1940, when the crisis generated by World War II in Europe necessitated strengthening the Nation's defenses.
Soon after recommissioning, Stansbury began conversion to a high-speed minesweeper. Redesignated DMS-8 in November 1940, she was assigned to duty in the Atlantic, performing patrol and minesweeping service until the United States formally entered the war in December 1941, and thereafter adding escort work to her missions. At the end of June 1942 she rescued nearly over three hundred survivors of the torpedoed steamer City of Birmingham, and in November she participated in the landings at Fedala, Morocco.
In December 1943, following another year of service along the East Coast and in the north Atlantic, Stansbury was transferred to the Pacific, where she continued escort and patrol work, as well as participating in several amphibious operations. Among the latter were the assaults on Kwajalein in January and February 1944, the Admiralty Islands in April and the Marianas in June and July.
Stansbury went to California in August 1944 for an overhaul that lasted until early 1945. She was thereafter employed as a training ship in West Coast waters, and was redesignated AG-107 in June. In September 1945, soon after the end of the Pacific War, the old ship returned to the Atlantic by way of the Panama Canal. Decommissioned in December 1945, Stansbury was sold for scrapping in October 1946.
Career (US):
Namesake: John Stansbury
Builder: Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California
Laid down: 9 December 1918
Launched: 16 May 1919
Commissioned: 8 January 1920 to May 27, 1922; August 29, 1940 to 11 December
1945
Reclassified: DMS-8, November 19, 1940
Struck: 3 January 1946 F
ate: Sold for scrapping, 26 October 1946.
Scrapped 25 January 1947
General characteristics Class and type: Wickes class destroyer
Displacement: 1,284 tons
Length: 314 ft 4 1⁄2 in (95.822 m) Beam: 30 ft 11 in (9.42 m) Draft:
9 ft 2 in (2.79 m)
Speed: 35 knots (65 km/h)
Complement: 122 officers and enlisted Armament: 4 x 4" (102 mm), 2 x 3" (76
mm), 12 x 21" (533 mm) tt.