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.
"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.
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