USS Stormes (DD-780) - World War II

World War II

Stormes was fitted out at Seattle and departed there on 14 February for the San Diego Bay area where she held her shakedown training. Upon completion of her shakedown, she sailed on 1 April for Bremerton for a post-shakedown overhaul. Dock trials were held on the morning of the 22nd; and, that afternoon, the destroyer put to sea, en route to Hawaii.

Stormes arrived at Pearl Harbor on 30 April and sailed the next day as escort for Louisville (CL-28) en route to Okinawa, via Guam. The two ships arrived at Hagushi anchorage on 23 May and joined the 5th Fleet. The destroyer was immediately assigned to the antiaircraft screen. She spent the night in the anchorage and took her position in the screen the next day. The ship underwent her first air raid that evening. The weather was bad on the morning of 25 May with poor visibility and intermittent rain squalls. At 0905, a Japanese plane was sighted as it passed between two Navy planes and headed for Ammen (DD-527) directly ahead of Stormes. At the last moment, the plane turned and crashed into Stormes's aft torpedo mount. Its bomb exploded in the magazine under her number three 5-inch mount. The ship was on fire, and sea water poured through holes in the hull. By noon, repair parties had extinguished the fires and plugged the holes. Twenty-one members of the crew were killed and 15 injured.

The battered destroyer slowly made her way back to Kerama Retto. She remained there until 5 July when she moved to Buckner Bay to enter a floating drydock. The ship left drydock on 13 August and was sufficiently seaworthy for the long trip back to the United States, even though only her port shaft was in commission. Stormes stood out of Buckner Bay on 17 August and steamed, via Saipan, Eniwetok, and Pearl Harbor, to San Francisco. She arrived at Hunters Point on 17 September and began a three-month overhaul.

The destroyer held refresher training in the San Diego area and, in January 1946, sailed for the east coast. She arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 14 January, and, before continuing to Norfolk, acted as a plane guard for aircraft carriers holding shakedown operations in the area.

Stormes arrived at Norfolk on 1 February and spent the remainder of the month preparing for Operation "Frostbite" which was to take place in March. Midway (CVB-41), a tanker, Stormes, and two other destroyers, moved into an area between Greenland, Labrador, and Hudson Strait in March to test carrier operations in sub-zero temperatures. Upon completion of the operation, Stormes steamed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for upkeep. On 11 April, she sailed to Casco Bay, Maine, for training and returned for a major overhaul. On 22 July, she sailed to Guantanamo Bay for refresher training and returned to Norfolk on 9 September. In October 1946, the destroyer escorted the Philippine Sea (CV-47) to Guantanamo Bay for the carrier's shakedown.

In January 1947, Stormes participated in an exercise at Guantanamo Bay and returned to the Caribbean the following month for a fleet exercise. The destroyer carried out routine fleet duties from her Norfolk base until 1950. In August, she sailed to Charleston, South Carolina, for inactivation.