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USS Goldsborough (DD-188)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Goldsborough (DD-188)

USS Goldsborough (DD-188) was launched 20 November 1918 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; sponsored by Miss Lucetta Pennington Goldsborough, daughter; commissioned at Norfolk 26 January 1920, Cmdr. Francis M. Robinson in command.

USS Goldsborough (DD-188) joined Division 25, Squadron 3, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, departing Norfolk 25 February 1920 for training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and returning to New York 1 May 1920 for maneuvers and tactics off the New England Coast. Reclassified as DD-188 on 1 July 1920, she stood out of Hampton Roads on 1 September 1920 on a practice cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, returning to Norfolk 10 October for operations along the seaboard to New York until 5 January 1921 when USS Goldsborough (DD-188) sailed to join the combined Battle Fleet off Cuba

Redesignated as AVP-18 on 15 November 1939, she was converted to a small seaplane tender at the New York Navy Yard, and recommissioned on 1 July 1940. She was redesignated as AVD-5 -- seaplane tender (destroyer) -- on 2 August 1940. USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) departed New York on 12 August 1940, to tend amphibious planes on neutrality patrol in waters ranging from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Virgin Islands, to Trinidad, British West Indies. On 3 July USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) departed Puerta Castilla for Portland Bight, Jamaica. Here she tended aircraft on special patrols in the protection of convoys between Cuba and the Panama Canal. She arrived at the Charleston Navy Yard from Jamaica 2 October 1942 for repairs, followed by gunnery practice in the Chesapeake Bay.

On 4 December 1943, USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) sailed with the Core task group. Near midnight of 2 January 1944, she made visual contact with a surfaced U-boat off the Azores, fought through heavy seas in an attempt to ram amidships. USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) departed Charleston 10 April and reached Pearl Harbor, via the Panama Canal and San Diego, 9 May for amphibious assault training in Hanalei and Kawaihae Bay. She sailed 29 May to rendezvous with a transport force proceeding via Ulithi to arrive off the invasion beaches of Saipan 15 June 1944. USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) continued patrol in the Gulf and off San Fabian until 18 January 1945.

After voyage repairs at Ulithi, USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) landed troops at Iwo Jima (3-6 March), thence via the Marianas to Tulagi harbor in the Solomons and back to Ulithi, where she joined transports bound for Okinawa. She arrived off Okinawa 11 April, fought off aerial raids near Hagushi beaches the following day and rescued a Navy fighter pilot whose plane was damaged in aerial combat. She departed Okinawa 14 April for voyage repairs at Guam, returning 15 May 1945 to patrol off Hagushi beaches until the 31st. USS Goldsborough (AVD-5) was then routed via the Marianas, Marshalls, and Pearl Harbor to San Pedro, Calif., where she arrived 1 July 1945. Redesignated again as destroyer (DD-188) 10 July, she decommissioned there 11 October 1945. Her name was struck from the Navy List 24 October 1945 and she was sold for scrapping 21 November 1946 to Hugo Nuef Corporation, New York, N.Y.

For a complete history of USS Goldsborough (DD-188) please see its DANFS page.