Gregory

(DD-82: dp. 1,191; 1. 314'4"; b. 30'11"; dr. 9'2", s.34.75 k(trl).; a. 4 4", 12 21" tt.; cpl. 141; cl. Wickes)


	Gregory, (DD-82) was launched 27 January 1915 by the Fore River Ship Building Co., Quincy, Mass.; 
sponsored by Mrs. George S. Trevor, great granddaughter of Admiral Gregory; and commissioned 1 June 1918, 
Comdr. Arthur P. Fairfield in command.


	Joining a convoy at New York, Gregory sailed for Brest, France, 25 June 1918. She spent the final 
summer of the war escorting convoys from the French port to various Allied ports in Britain and France. As the 
war neared its close, Gregory was assigned to the patrol squadron at Gibraltar 2 November 1918. In addition to 
patrolling in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, Gregory carried passengers and supplies to the Adriatic and 
aided in the execution of the terms of the Austrian armistice. After six months of this duty, the flush-deck 
destroyer joined naval forces taking part in relief missions to the western Mediterranean 28 April 1919. In 
company with USS Arizona, Gregory carried supplies and passengers to Smyrna. Constantinople, and Batum. 
She then sailed for Gibraltar with the American counsul from Tiflis, Russia and some British army officers. 
Debarking her passengers on the rocky fortress, Gregory sailed for New York reaching the States 13 June 1919.


	After brief tours in reserve at Tompkinsville, N.Y., the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Philadelphia Navy 
Yard, Gregory sailed to Charleston, S.C., 4 January 1921. A year of local training operations out of the southern 
port ended 12 April 1922 when Gregory entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She decommissioned 7 July 1922 
and went into reserve.


	As war broke again over Europe, threatening to involve the United States, Gregory and three other 
four-stackers were taken out of mothballs for conversion to high-speed transports. The DDs were stripped of 
virtually all their armament to make room for boats, while other important modifications were made for troops 
and cargo. Gregory recommissioned 4 November 1940 as APD-3 and joined Little, Colhoun, and McKean to 
form Transport Division 12 None of these valiant ships were to live through the Pacific war all but McKean were 
lost during the Guadalcanal campaign.


	Gregory and her sister APD's trained along the East. Coast for the following year perfecting landing 
techniques with various Marine divisions. On 27 January 27 with war already raging in the Pacific, she departed 
Charleston for Pearl Harbor. Exercises in Hawaiian waters kept TransDiv 12 in the Pacific through the spring, 
after which they returned to San Diego for repairs. They sailed for the Pacific again 7 June, reaching Pearl 
Harbor a week later to train for the upcoming invasion of Guadalcanal, America's first offensive effort in the 
long Pacific campaign.


Departing Noumea 31 July 1942, Gregory joined TF 62 (Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher) and steamed for 
Guadalcanal. After sending her Marines ashore in the first assault waves 7 August, Gregory and her sister APD's
remained in the area performing a variety of tasks in one of history's most desperately fought over areas. The 
versatile ships patrolled the waters around the hotly contested islands waters which were to gain notoriety as 
"Iron Bottom Sound" and brought up ammunition & supplies from Espiritu Santo.


	On 4 September Gregory and Little were returning to their anchorage at Tulagi after transferring a 
Marine Raider Battalion to Savo Island. The night was inky black with a low haze obscuring all landmarks. and 
the ships decided to remain on patrol rather than risk threading their way through the dangerous channel. As 
they steamed between Guadalcanal and Savo Island at ten knots, three Japanese destroyers ( Yudachi, 
Hatsuyuki and Murakumo) entered the Slot undetected to bombard American shore positions. At 0056 on the 
morning of 5 September, Gregory and Little saw dashes of gunfire which they assumed came from a Japanese 
submarine until radar showed four targets apparently a cruiser had Joined the three DD's. While the two 
outgunned but gallant ships were debating whether to close for action or depart quietly and undetected, the 
decision was taken out of their hands.


	A Navy pilot had also seen the gunfire and, assuming it came from a Japanese submarine, dropped a 
string of five flares almost On top of the two APD's. Gregory and Little, silhouetted against the blackness, were 
spotted immediately by the Japanese destroyers, who opened fire at 0100. Gregory brought all her guns to 
bear but was desperately overmatched and less than 3 minutes after the fatal flares had been dropped was 
dead in the water and beginning to sink. Two boilers had burst and her decks were a mass of fames. Her 
skipper, LT. Comdr. H. F Bauer, himself seriously wounded, gave the word to abandon ship, and Gregory's crew 
reluctantly took to the water. Bauer ordered two companions to aid another crewman yelling for help and was 
never seen again; for his brave and gallant conduct he posthumously received the Silver Star.


	At 0123, with all of Gregory's and most of Little's crew in the water, the Japanese ships began shelling 
again aiming not at the crippled ships but at their helpless crews in the water. All but 11 of Gregory's crew 
Survived, 6 of them swimming through the night all the way to Guadalcanal. Gregory sank stern first some 40 
minutes after the firing had begun, and was followed 2 hours later by Little. Fleet Admiral Nimitz, in praising the 
courageous ships after their loss, wrote that "both of these small vessels fought as well as possible against the 
overwhelming odds . . . With little means, they performed duties vital to the success of the campaign." 
Gregory's name was struck from the Navy List 2 October 1942.


	Gregory received two battle stars for service in World War II.