USS Maddox (DD-731)

History

USS Maddox (DD-731), was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer. She was named after Captain William A. T. Maddox of the United States Marine Corps.

Maddox screened the ships of the Fast Carrier Task Force during strikes against Japanese targets in the western Pacific. She was hit by a Japanese kamikaze aircraft off Formosa on 21 January 1945. Later, she covered the Marine landings at Okinawa and operated with the 7th Fleet in support of United Nations Forces during the Korean War. Maddox participated in the Blockade of Wonsan, an 861-day siege and bombardment of the city.

After 1953, she alternated operations along the west coast of the United States and in Hawaiian waters, with regular deployments to the western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet. Maddox departed Long Beach 13 March 1964. At first steaming with fast carrier groups in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, she headed south 18 May and established patrol off the coast of South Vietnam. During August she was involved in a skirmish with North Vietnamese torpedo boats, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Maddox (DD-731), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1943
   She was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath in Maine on 28 October 1943, launched on 19 March 1944 by Mrs.
2. 1944
   Arriving at Ulithi 21 October 1944, she was assigned to Fast Carrier TG 38.1 of the 3rd Fleet.
3. 1947
   Returning to San Diego 24 March 1947, she operated for the next three years off the west coast conducting reserve training cruises, serving as a training ship in antisubmarine warfare and gunnery and participating in maneuvers with the 1st Task Fleet.
4. 1950
   On 1 May 1950, Maddox departed San Diego for the Far East, arriving Hong Kong 26 June, the day after the commencement of hostilities in Korea.
5. 1953
   After local operations and overhaul, Maddox again sailed for the Far East on 2 February 1953.
6. 1954
   Maddox operated off the west coast until the next spring. (Maddox is featured in the Hollywood film Return from the Sea, released by Allied Artists in 1954.) On 4 May 1954, she sailed for duty with the 7th Fleet.
7. 1962
   Having operated off the west coast for two years, from March 1962, Maddox departed Long Beach 13 March 1964 for another tour with the 7th Fleet.
8. 1964
   On 31 July 1964 she commenced her first leg of a DESOTO patrol in the Tonkin Gulf.
9. 1967
   After a successful tour consisting primarily of providing gunfire support, interrupted by a visit to Singapore and a crossing of the Equator on 8 February 1967, Maddox departed Subic Bay, Philippine Islands, for home by way of Australia, New Zealand, and Pearl Harbor.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Maddox (DD-731)”

More history

• Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS)
• Wikipedia: USS Maddox (DD-731)