U.S.S. MANSFIELD

USS MANSFIELD (DD-728)

Mansfield (DD-728) was laid down 28 August 1943 by the Bath Iron Works Corp. Bath Maine Iaunched 29 January 1944 sponsored by Mrs Edmond F. Jewell and commissioned 1 L April 1944 Comdr. Robert E. Brady Jr. in command.

After shakedown off Bermuda and further training at Norfolk and Casco Bay Maine Mansfield steamed via the Panama Canal for the west coast arriving San Diego 10 September 1944. A week later in company with DesDiv 122 she headed for Pearl Harbor co nducting training exercises en route. After antiaircraft and shore bombardment exercises at Pearl Harbor Mansfield and four other destroyers escorted a convoy to Ulithi.

There Mansfield Joined TG 38.1 to screen and serve as picket during carrier strikes against central Luzon including the Manila area. On 10 December 1944 Mansfield with DesRon 61 in TG 38.2 again screened raids on Luzon. After several successful str ikes a sudden typhoon canceled further strikes and capsized destroyers Hull Spence and Monaghan. Mansfield's task group picked up survivors and returned to Ulithi.

On 30 December Mansfield Joined TG 30.1 for air strikes against Formosa and central Luzon. Afterwards Admiral Halsey took the 3d Fleet with TG 30.1 through the Bashi Strait into the South China Sea up to then a private lake of the Japanese Navy. H owever no Japanese units challenged Halsey's fleet during its 3 800 mile foray along the China coast from Hong Kong to Saigon. From 10 to 20 January 1945 3d Fleet aircraft battered enemy facilities and merchant ships and destroyed 112 Japanese planes.

In early February 1945 Mansfield screened in TG 58.1 as carriers flew strikes against targets in the Tokyo industrial area. On 15 February Mansfield helped Bush splash an enemy fighter closing the formation. From 17 to 23 February TG 58.1 lent fighte r support for the Iwo Jima assault then steamed at full speed back to the Tokyo area for bombing runs on Nagoya and Kobe. As heavy weather set in the task group retired southward pounding enemy shore installations on Okinawa while en route to Ulithi fo r replenishment.

From 14 March to 27 April 1945 Mansfield Screened carriers during strikes against southern Kyushu followed by sweeps against Okinawa Gunto. On 9 May 1945 her flattops again pounded Kyushu Okinawa and the island groups between. From 28 May when th e 5th Fleet again became the 3d Fleet and TG 58.1 became TG 38.1 to the Japanese surrender 15 August the destroyer operated off the Japanese homeland. Three weeks before V-J Day Mansfield with eight destroyers of DesRon 61 conducted a daring high-spe ed torpedo run into Nojima Saki sinking or damaging four enemy ships.

After witnessing the formal Japanese surrender ceremony in September in Tokyo Bay Mansfield returned to the west coast. During the postwar years the combat veteran trained reservists from the west coast and made annual cruises to WestPac as part of t he Destroyer Force Pacific Fleet.

On 27 June 1950 2 days after the North Korean invasion of South Korea Mansfield steamed from Sasebo Japan to South Korea to provide gunfire support and escort services. Three months later as flagship for DesDiv 91 she led the division into Inchon Channel openly inviting shore batteries to unmask themselves. Once the Communists fired Mansfield smothered them with a 5 inch bombardment; she suffered no damage or casualties in the action.

Two weeks after Inchon Mansfield while searching for a downed Air Force B-26 struck a mine which severed the bow below the main deck and seriously injured 27 crew members. Receiving a stub bow at Subic Bay [sic; reportedly Sasebo - Ed.] she steamed to Naval Shipyard Bremerton Wash. for repairs rejoining the U.N. Fleet off South Korea late in 1951 for gunfire support escort and shore bombardment duty.

After Korea Mansfield alternated between duty in WestPac and training west coast reservists. Overhauled in the fall of 1955 at the Naval Shipyard Long Beach Calif. she returned there in 1960 for FRAM. The Mark II overhaul and conversion replaced he r 3 inch 50 cal. battery with Mark 25 and Mark 32 antisubmarine torpedo batteries and configured the after superstructure for DASH. From October 1960 to October 1961 the "new" destroyer conducted training exercises with the 1st Fleet off the west coast. For the following 3 years home ported at Yokosuka she provided escort service for the 7th Fleet's Fast Carrier Attack Force.

To be home ported at Long Beach the destroyer returned to the United States in June 1964. On 20 August 1965 Mansfield again sailed westward for duty with the 7th Fleet. For the next 6 months she carried out screening and plane guard duties with fast c arriers and provided gunfire support for South Vietnamese Australian and American forces fighting in South Vietnam.

In June of 1966 Mansfield was once again assigned Yokosuka as her home port after which her deployment schedule repeatedly took her back to the South China Sea for operations off the coast of Vietnam. Excluding 2 weeks in September with TF 130 as an alternate recovery ship for Gemini XI and 2 weeks in late November as station ship at Hong Kong she spent the remainder of 1966 off the Vietnamese coast in roles which ranged from blockade patrol in the I Corps area and the interdiction of Junk and sampa n traffic from the north into South Vietnam to gunfire support south of Saigon. Adding air-sea rescue to her services in 1967 she has continued to carry out similar missions in support of Allied operations in Vietnam throughout 1967 1968 and into 1969.

Mansfield received five battle stars for World War II service and three for Korean service.

[Note: The above USS MANSFIELD (DD-728) history may or may not contain text provided by crew members of the USS MANSFIELD (DD-728) or by other non-crew members and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]