USS Fletcher DD-445, DDE-445, DD-992

Links

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USS Fletcher DD-445 documents
USS Fletcher DD-445 cruise books
USS Fletcher DD-992 documents
USS Fletcher Reunion Group Newsletters

USS Fletcher Photos

DD-445 Photos
Crew Photos
DD-992 Photos
DD-992 Tiger Cruise 2004
DD-992 WestPac, 2000-2001

Reunion photos (missing years means no photos available or no reunion)

2019 San Antonio, TX
2018 Virginia Beach, VA
2017 Branson, MO
2016 San Diego, CA
2015 Albuquerque, NM
2014 Columbus GA
2013 Seattle, WA
2012 Boston, MA
2011 Waterloo, IA
2010 Lake Harmony, PA
2009 Rapid City, SD
2008 Ft. Mitchell, KY
2007 Oklahoma City, OK
2006 Carson City, NV
2005 New London, CT
2004 Madison, WI
2003 Great Falls, MT
2002 San Antonio, TX
2001 Virginia Beach, VA
2000 Davenport, IA
1997 Mobile, AL
1996 San Diego, CA
1994 Dayton, OH
1993 Seattle, WA
1991 Baton Rouge, LA
1990 Minneapolis, MN
1988 San Antonio, TX
1984 Nashville, TN
1980 Biloxi, MS
1976 Hampton, VA
1975 Charleston, SC
1974 Chicago, IL
1973 Nashville, TN
1972 Norfolk, VA

Other Links
Destroyer History home page
Life on a Fletcher Class Destroyer - article
National Association of Destroyer Veterans (Tin Can Sailors)
Elmer Charles Bigelow, Medal of Honor site 1
Elmer Charles Bigelow, Medal of Honor site 2
American Legion
VFW
National Museum of the Pacific War
Vietnam Virtual Wall
BlueWaterNavy.org
Author Rick Campbell
Vietnam Naval Gunfire Missions Database
PTSD Treatment
VA - Veterans Asbestos Exposure
Navy Ship Deck Logs

Photos

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:08:05 -0600

The Fletcher photo collection includes hundreds of photos of Fletcher and her crew throughout her stellar career as well as hundreds more from several of our reunions and a handful of other unrelated photos.

If you have photos of Fletcher, her crew or the reunions that you'd like to share, please contact the webmaster. We prefer previously scanned photos set to the highest resolution you can do but will accept whatever you have. Photos or PDF copies of old documents are also welcome.

Please browse our photos and documents and feel free to leave comments. Thank you for visiting the USS Fletcher Reunion Group's web site!

Photo Links

DD-445 Photos

Crew Photos

DD-992 Photos

Other Links

Rosters

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Crew rosters are based on data available at the time and aren't available for all years. If you spot an error or know of an addition please contact the webmaster so an update can be made. On the Links page is a link to documents including some of those from which these rosters were compliled. In some instances new men have been added or misspelled names have been corrected.

1942 1943 1944 1945 1949 1950 1957 1959 1960 1964 1965 1967 1968

Stories

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A collection of stories by the crew.

If you have a story you'd like to share, please contact the webmaster for submission information. Contents are listed on the drop down menu.

Contact

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Reunions

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Reunion locations

1971 - Pocono Mountains, PA
1972 - Point Comfort, VA
1973 - Nashville, TN
1974 - Chicago, IL
1975 - Charleston, SC
1976 - Point Comfort, VA
1977 - Alexandria, VA
1978 - St. Louis, MO
1979 - San Diego, CA
1980 - Biloxi, MS
1981 - Kansas City, MO
1982 - Jacksonville Beach, FL
1983 - Reno, NV
1984 - Nashville, TN
1985 - Alexandria, VA
1986 - Portland, OR
1987 - Charleston, SC
1988 - San Antonio, TX
1989 - Sacramento, CA
1990 - Minneapolis, MN
1991 - Baton Rouge, LA
1992 - Norfolk, VA
1993 - Seattle, WA
1994 - Dayton, OH
1995 - Philadelphia, PA
1996 - San Diego, CA
1997 - Mobile, AL
1998 - Colorado Springs, CO
1999 - Jacksonville Beach, FL
2000 - Davenport, IA
2001 - Virginia Beach, VA
2002 - San Antonio, TX
2003 - Great Falls, MT
2004 - Madison, WI
2005 - New London, CT
2006 - Carson City, NV
2007 - Oklahoma City, OK
2008 - Fort Mitchell, KY
2009 - Rapid City, SD
2010 - Pocono Mountains, PA
2011 - Waterloo, IA
2012 - Boston, MA
2013 - Seattle, WA
2014 - Columbus, GA
2015 - Albuquerque, NM
2016 - San Diego, CA
2017 - Branson, MO
2018 - Virginia Beach, VA
2019 - San Antonio, TX
2020 to now - no reunions

USS Fletcher Reunions

The USS Fletcher Reunion Group was founded in 1971 by Dr. Ray V. Allen, a former engineering yeoman and a Fletcher plank owner. The Group was conceived in Boston in the summer of 1970 when Dr. Allen attended a League of Naval Destroyers Reunion. It was there he met other former Fletcher men in the first unofficial Fletcher reunion and the idea of holding annual reunions was born. The first official USS Fletcher Reunion was held in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania the following year. After World War Two Mr. Allen returned home to West Virginia where he made a successful career in dentistry. He passed away in 1993. Dr. Allen’s wife, Lil, is the Reunion Group’s matriarch, she passed away on February 25, 2015.

Photos: Dr. Ray Allen in 1992 and Lil Allen in 2004.

USS Fletcher Reunion Group Officers as of 2021

Commodore - Shaun Murphy - Mattapoisett, MA
Vice Commodore & Webmaster - Earl Faubion - Newcastle, OK
Secretary - Buck Locke - Nashville, TN
Treasurer - Larry Friederich - Cheyenne, WY
Corresponding Secretary - Ginny Bender - Sidney, OH

For reunion photos visit the Links page

News

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The 2026 Tin Can Sailors National Reunion will be in Warwick, RI. Details forthcoming.

The Links page has been slimmed down and requests to post new links will be honored only if they are directly related to USS Fletcher or the U.S. Navy.

Obituaries are posted on our Facebook page where visitors may comment and post obituaries of any of our Fletcher family.

Most of our newsletters are in PDF format online.

If you are filing for VA disability based on Agent Orange exposure, the following dates show the 15 times that Fletcher was deployed to Vietnamese waters. Keep in mind that to qualify, the ship had to be within 12 miles of the coast and on some of these sorties, we were in Yankee Station with aircraft carriers beyond that limit. The dates in parenthesis are dates that qualify for Blue Water Navy Agent Orange claims when we were well within the 12-mile limit and on the coast. There may be other dates when we were in closer, If you know of one that isn’t listed, let me know.

Nov 18 - 25, 1965 (gunline Nov 22-24)
Jan 16 - Feb 2, 1966
Dec 22, 1966 - Jan 10, 1967 (gunline Dec 25-31)
Feb 25 - Mar 8, 1967
Mar 30 - Apr 14, 1967
Mar 19 - Apr 6, 1968
May 1 - 12, 1968 (gunline May 1-6)
Jun 1 - 14, 1968
Jun 26 - Jul 12, 1968
Jul 24 - Aug 11, 1968
Dec 12, 1968 - Jan 10, 1969 (gunline & Market Time, Dec 24-Jan 10)
Jan 30 - Feb 8, 1969
Feb 18 - 27, 1969 (gunline Feb 19-24)
Mar 16 - 19, 1969
Apr 2 - 14, 1969

On our Links page, you can find links to the deck logs and more details and proof that Fletcher was there. At the top of each day’s entry are morning, noon and evening positions which can be entered into Google Maps for location details for that day.

History

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A Brief Fletcher History

The USS Fletcher DD-445 was launched 3 May 1942 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. F. F. Fletcher, widow of Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher; and commissioned 30 June 1942. Lieutenant Commander W. M. Cole in command.

Fletcher arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, 5 October 1942 from the east coast, and at once began escort and patrol duty in the Guadalcanal operation, bombarding Lunga Point 30 October. Sailing from Espiritu Santo 9 November to cover the landing of reinforcements on the embattled island, she joined in driving off a heavy enemy air attack on the transports 12 November, splashing several enemy aircraft. This was the opening phase of the Battle of Guadalcanal a 3-day air and surface action in which American naval forces fought so determinedly and tenaciously to hold control of the seas in the Solomons that the Japanese never again sent large naval forces into the waters around Guadalcanal. Fletcher played an important part in the surface action off Guadalcanal 13 November, firing guns and torpedoes in the general melee which sank two Japanese destroyers and damaged battleship Hiei, later sent to the bottom by carrier and Marine aircraft.

Fletcher retired to replenish at Espiritu Santo arriving the day after the battle, and after patrolling against submarines off Noumea, sortied 30 November 1942 with a force of cruisers and destroyers to intercept a force of enemy transports and destroyers expected to attempt a reinforcement of Guadalcanal that night. Fletcher led the force through Lengo Channel, and made the first radar contact with the enemy off Tassafaronga Point just before midnight. The resulting battle saw one Japanese destroyer sunk and one slightly damaged and four American cruisers badly damaged, all but one of which were saved by superb damage control measures. Fletcher rescued survivors of Northampton CA-26, ingeniously using cork-floated cargo nets to take great groups of them from the water.

Fletcher continued to operate in the Solomons patrolling, bombarding shore targets, driving off Japanese air attacks, rescuing downed aviators, destroying Japanese landing barges and covering new landings on the northern coast of Guadalcanal. Out on patrol 11 February 1943, Fletcher was alerted by a smoke float dropped by a plane from Helena CL-50, and sped to attack and sink a Japanese submarine. She sailed in support of the landings on the Russell Islands 28 February, bombarded Munda airfield on New Georgia during the night of 5-6 March, and continued to guard the movement of transports in the Solomons