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USS Badger (DD-126)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Badger (DD-126)

USS Badger (Destroyer No. 126) was laid down on 9 January 1918 at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, launched on 24 August 1918; sponsored by Mrs. Henry F. Bryan; and commissioned on 29 May 1919, Cmdr. George T. Swasey, Jr., in command.

USS Badger completed fitting out early that summer and then put to sea on 16 June 1919 in company with Ellis (Destroyer No. 154), McCalla (Destroyer No. 253), and Roper (Destroyer No. 147) bound for European waters. The Navy adopted the alphanumeric system of hull classification and identification, and Badger became DD-126 on 17 July 1920. Not long thereafter, on 4 September 1920, Badger was placed in reduced commission. USS Badger  (DD-126) resumed active duty as a unit of Division 14, Squadron 6, and served with the Battle Fleet for about 14 months.  

On 9 January 1932, USS Badger (DD-126) departed Charleston on her way to winter exercises in the vicinity of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The beginning of 1934 found Badger moored at Key West, Fla., where she had arrived on 28 December 1933. On 28 December 1935, USS Badger  (DD-126) stood out of New York on her way via Hampton Roads, Va., and Guantanamo Bay, to Panama for the annual fleet concentration and fleet problem.  USS Badger  (DD-126) began 1938 moored at the New York Navy Yard awaiting orders to get underway for the West Indies to participate in the annual fleet concentration. On 20 January 1943, USS Badger  (DD-126) set out from Boston on her way south to the West Indies to begin four months of duty escorting the local Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico trunk convoys associated with the major north-south convoy system devised in August of 1942. 

On 20 September 1939, USS Badger  (DD-126) left Villefranche in company with the flagship Trenton (CL-11) and Jacob Jones bound for Lisbon, Portugal.  Relieved by Dickerson (DD-157) and Herbert (DD-160) on 1 October, Badger and Jacob Jones departed Lisbon on 5 October bound for home.  On 14 August 1940, Badger stood out of Norfolk for an extended voyage to the West Indies and Central America. After four weeks of operations on the Panama's Pacific coast, Badger retransited the canal on 12 November and sailed immediately for the Gulf coast of Florida.  On 15 November 1944, she arrived in Port Everglades, Fla., and reported to the Commander, Antisubmarine Development Detachment, Atlantic Fleet, for duty. 

On 20 June 1945, USS Badger  (DD-126) left Port Everglades, Fla., on her way to Philadelphia, Pa., for inactivation.  She reached her destination on the 22d.  USS Badger  (DD-126) was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pa., on 20 July 1945, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 13 August 1945.

For a complete history of USS Badger (DD-126) please see its DANFS page.