Existing comment:
USS Ward (DD-139) Under Construction
1918
These three photographs document the construction of USS Ward (DD_139), one of 111 Wickes Class "flush deck" or "four piper" American destroyers built in 1917-19. Her keel was laid on 15 May 1918, and only seventeen days later, on 1 June, she was launched at Mare Island Navy Yard, CA.
Decommissioned in 1921, Ward was recommissioned in January 1941 and ordered to Pearl Harbor, HI. On the morning of 7 December, several hours prior to the Japanese air attack, she sighted and sank an enemy two-man midget submarine, earning the honor of firing the first American shots in World War II. |