USS Basilone

[Dan M]

I was going through a box of old postcards that belonged to my late mother in law and found one from Italy sent by a family friend in 1968 whose husband was in the US Navy at the time. What is interesting is that it was postmarked from the USS Basilone, a destroyer built in WWII and named after USMC Sgt. John Basilone who received the Medal of Honor for actions on I believe, Guadalcanal, and was killed on Iwo Jima. I did a search of this ship and found it's history on wikipedia. This is how this ship ended its days.
"Basilone was decommissioned on 1 November 1977, and her name was struck from the Navy List that same day. After serving as a target for missile-firing exercises, she was sunk on 9 April 1982 in the Atlantic Ocean about 80 miles (150 km) east of St. Augustine, Florida."

I was a bit sadden to read this as it would have been nice if it had been turned into a museum like the USS Sullivans which is in the Naval Park in Buffalo, NY. The USS Little Rock is also there along with the USS Croaker, a WWII sub.

[birdie]

I agree

Basilone was an incredible hero..sad end for a proud ship..

[juoneen]

This reminds me of the pile of oriskany stuff i just scored from the early 60s, that they just recently sunk

[PEVO]

This reminds me of the pile of oriskany stuff i just scored from the early 60s, that they just recently sunk

I bet she would be at the breakers right now if she wasn't sunk....with the going price of scrap steel at 12 cents a pound!

[juoneen]

I'm not so sure.....so much of the old ships were laced with all kinds of environmental chemicals including lead based paint, jet fuel, and such, that the recycling might be more costly than what the metal is worth after ....at least today they recognize the hazards, so better to make it a artificial reef, than bother with all the hazardous materials. By the way...I just saw them diving on the Oriskany last week, and just a few years after it was sunk on cable. I actually had a oriskany badge some years back, and sold it . This pile was from just before kennedys assassination. But that's not what the threads about, its about the USS Basilone. I think we need a thread about sunken american ships ,their paper relating to them, and also about ships our dads fought on ...now scrapped.

[Dan M]

Good idea, Jouneen.

If one gets started, I have a couple of USS Arizona items to add.

[juoneen]

Lets see if someone starts one, then if they DON'T...then I guess we will have to. I think it would be interesting to say the least.