USS Thatcher (DD-514) - Fate

Fate

On 13 May, Thatcher got underway for Kerama Retto, near Okinawa. The destroyer was assigned to radar picket duty to detect and intercept enemy aircraft before they could enter the transport anchorages. On 20 May, she detected large numbers of Japanese aircraft approaching the anchorage. All ships opened fire, and Thatcher maneuvered to bring all batteries to bear on the attacking planes. As a low-flying Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar" fighter passed down her port side, she increased her speed to 25 knots (46 km/h) and commenced firing with her 20 mm and 40 mm guns. The kamikaze climbed steeply, did a wing-over, and dived into the destroyer, striking her aft of the bridge. All power and steering control on the bridge were lost; both radars and the gyro system were out; all external communications were lost; and there was a six- by nine-foot hole between the keel and the bilge. Boyd and Pavlic came alongside to remove the wounded and help extinguish fires. With 14 killed or missing and 53 wounded, the stricken ship limped into Kerama Retto. Thatcher awaited drydock entry until 1 July. On the 13th, she was ready for sea and had to ride out a typhoon in Buckner Bay. On the 19th, a kamikaze slipped into the bay and dived on the destroyer. His aim was not as accurate as his predecessor, and he bounced off the port side, above the water line, to explode and burn alongside. Damage was slight, and only two men were wounded.

Thatcher got underway for the United States on 25 July. After calling at Ulithi, Majuro, Eniwetok, Johnston Island, and Hawaii, she arrived at Bremerton, Washington on 20 August. A survey board decided that the ship should be scrapped, and she was decommissioned on 23 November 1945. Thatcher was struck from the Navy List on 5 December 1945 and sold on 23 January 1948 to the Lerner Co., Oakland, California, for scrap.