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USS Barton (DD-722)

Please see below for item  level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Barton (DD-722)

USS Barton (DD-722) was laid down on 24 May 1943 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works; launched on 10 October 1943; sponsored by Miss Barbara Dean Barton; and commissioned on 30 December 1943 at Boston, Mass., Comdr. Joseph W. Callahan in command.

After spending the first three weeks of January 1944 at Boston, initially completing her outfitting and later putting to sea on a daily basis for drills, USS Barton (DD-722)  got underway on 20 January bound for shakedown training in the vicinity of Bermuda. 

USS Barton (DD-722) spent Christmas at Leyte while plans moved forward for the invasion of Luzon at Lingayen Gulf. USS Barton (DD-722)  remained on call at Lingayen until late January, helping to bring down one more enemy plane during her stay. Day and night for three months, the destroyer pursued an exhausting routine. She performed a variety activities: fire support, antiaircraft defense, antisubmarine screening, and radar picket duty. USS Barton (DD-722) observed Navy Day in Everett, Wash., then sailed for San Francisco on 31 October and remained in that port for several months' standdown and repair. She then conducted training in preparation for her next assignment, duty as a surface survey ship during the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. On 5 August, the destroyer conducted calibration firing exercises and gunfire drills before departing for San Diego, where she arrived on 22 August. USS Barton (DD-722) was readied for inactive status and, on 22 January 1947, was placed out of commission, in reserve, at San Diego.

USS Barton (DD-722) was recommissioned on 11 April 1949, Comdr. Charles W. Rush, Jr., in command.  Though war had been raging in Korea since early in the summer of 1950, the Navy did not call upon USS Barton (DD-722) for duty with the United Nations forces in Korean waters until the spring of 1952. On 4 January 1954, the destroyer headed for the Far East once again for another tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. In April 1965, USS Barton (DD-722)  received orders to join Reserve Destroyer Squadron 30, and she became flagship of the squadron in its home port of Philadelphia. During her remaining years in commission, USS Barton (DD-722) operated primarily between Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Guantanamo Bay. In August 1968, a board of inspection and survey determined the destroyer to be beyond economical repair. USS Barton (DD-722) was decommissioned on 30 September 1968, and her name struck from the Navy list on 1 October 1968. She was sunk as a target on 8 October 1969.

For a complete history of USS Barton (DD-722) please see its DANFS page.