DESTROYERMEN

We look back upon ourselves not only as sailors, but also as a special type of sailor — those who were destroyermen.

Much has been made of the role of carriers, battleships and submarines — we lost 52 of them during the war — but we can take great pride in the fact that we were destroyermen and, as such, were on the leading edge of the fight with the enemy.

DESTROYERMAN! The name alone conjures up an accurate picture of what we were about. There is nothing defensive about the term destroyerman. We were on the offense. We were the ones who would score victories. We were the ones who would put the enemy on the defensive and keep him there. And when our offense met the German offense, as was the case in the Battle of the Atlantic when the task of eradicating the German U-boats fell largely to destroyers such as Corry, we and our enemies learned that we were up to our calling. The Battle of the Atlantic, the Invasion of North Africa, and the Normandy Invasion were spearheaded by those of us on destroyers.

Luck and chance were the forces that put most of us into the destroyer navy. But whatever our path to the Corry, the first time we walked aboard and saluted the ensign and then the Officer of the Deck and requested permission to come on board, we were joining a select brotherhood.

 
Grant G. Gullickson
Commander, United States Navy (Retired)
Chief machinist mate and survivor, USS Corry (DD-463)