Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Tags
Related Content
Topic
Document Type
  • Themed Collection
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials
  • NHHC

USS Compton (DD-705)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Compton (DD-705)

USS Compton (DD-705) was launched 17 September 1944 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. L. Compton; and commissioned 4 November 1944, Commander R. O. Strange in command.

USS Compton (DD-705) cleared Norfolk 17 February 1945 for training at Pearl Harbor between 16 March and 5 April, when she sailed to escort ships to Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Sailing on to Ulithi, she cleared for Okinawa 20 April. As the operations there continued, USS Compton (DD-705) offered pinpoint gunfire support to forces ashore and served in the antisubmarine and antiaircraft screens protecting shipping off the island. After repairs at Leyte from 17 May to 16 June 1945, USS Compton (DD-705) returned to Okinawa for continued operations until 4 July, when she sailed to escort a convoy to Guam, returning to Leyte Gulf 10 July.

Along with east coast operations, USS Compton (DD-705) cruised the Caribbean on intensive training and midshipmen cruises in the years that followed, as well as serving as schoolship and training members of the Naval Reserve. Assignment to duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean came once more in 1953 and 1955, and in the spring of 1956, USS Compton (DD-705) exercised off Bermuda with ships of the British Home Fleet in NATO operation "New Broom V."

USS Compton (DD-705) was serving at Bahrein in the Persian Gulf in the fall of 1956 when the Suez Crisis erupted, and stood by to evacuate American civilians in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea areas should that become necessary. With the Canal closed, USS Compton (DD-705) made her homeward passage by way of Mombasa, Durban, the Cape of Good Hope, Simonstown, Recife, and Trinidad, returning to Newport 8 January 1957. That fall, she again cruised off the British Isles in a series of NATO operations. From November 1957 to April 1958, she again served in the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and that summer cruised to Rotterdam and Bergen with midshipmen on board for training. From that time into 1960, her operations were coastwise and in the Caribbean, as she aided research and development projects, including major meteorological research and gave service to the Fleet Sonar School at Key West. In August 1960 USS Compton (DD-705) again sailed to the Mediterranean for duty in the 6th Fleet.

For a complete history of USS Compton (DD-705) please see its DANFS page.