Pre-war Service
Downes was launched 22 April 1936 by Norfolk Naval Shipyard; sponsored by Miss S. F. Downes, descendant of Captain Downes; and commissioned 15 January 1937, Commander C. H. Roper in command.
Downes reached San Diego, California from Norfolk, Virginia 24 November 1937, and based there for exercises along the west coast, in the Caribbean, and in the Hawaiian Islands until April 1940, when Pearl Harbor became her home port. In March and April 1941 she joined in a cruise to Samoa, Fiji, and Australia, and visited the west coast later in the year.
Read more about this topic: USS Downes (DD-375)
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“Service ... is love in action, love “made flesh”; service is the body, the incarnation of love. Love is the impetus, service the act, and creativity the result with many by-products.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 3, ch. 3 (1962)