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Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive

USS Flaherty (DE 135)


Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign:
N - W - S - O
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive) - Presidential Unit Citation
Second Row: American Campaign Medal - European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal w/ 4 stars - WWII Victory Medal
Specifications:
Class: Edsall
Type: FMR (geared diesel, Fairbanks-Morse reverse gear drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1200 tons (light), 1590 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 10" (extreme)
Draft: 20' 6" (draft limit)
Propulsion: 4 Fairbanks-Morse Mod. 38d81/8 geared diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 21 kts
Range: 9,100 nm @ 12 knots
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Complement: 8 / 201
Flaherty (DE 135) Building and Operational Data:
  • 7 November 1942: Keel laid by the Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Tex.
  • 17 January 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. J. J. Flaherty, sister-in-law of Ensign Flaherty
  • 26 June 1943: Commissioned, Lcdr M. W. Firth in command
  • 17 June 1946: Decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla.
  • 1 April 1965: Stricken from the NVR
  • 4 November 1966: Sold for scrapping
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By And/Or Copyright
    Flaherty 142k Artist's conception of Flaherty by the renowned graphic illustrator John Barrett, with the text written by naval author and historian Robert F. Sumrall. Their company, Navy Yard Associates, offers prints of most destroyers, submarines and aircraft carriers in various configurations during the ship's lifetime. ALL the destroyer escorts ARE available in their WWII configuration. The prints can be customized with ship's patches, your photograph, your bio, etc. When you purchase artwork from them, please indicate that you heard about their work from Navsource. Navy Yard Associates
    Flaherty 45k Francis Charles Flaherty was born on 15 March 1919 in Charlotte, Michigan. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 6 July 1940, and was appointed ensign 12 December 1940. While serving in USS Oklahoma (BB 37) he sacrificed his life in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. When his ship was being abandoned, he remained in a turret holding a flashlight so that all of his men could see to escape. For this supreme devotion to duty, Ensign Flaherty was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

    The escort ship USS Flaherty (DE 135) (1943-1946) was named in his honor.

    (Photo from the the Home of Heroes)    		 Navsource
    Flaherty 167k 17 January 1943: Orange, Tex. - Flaherty (DE 135) ready for sideways launching at the Consolidated Steel Co. shipyard. (Source: National Archive Photo; Courtesy of Task Group 22.3 Association, Captain Jerry Mason, USN (ret.) Mike Green
    Flaherty 129k undated wartime image John Klar
    Flaherty 102k USS Flaherty transferring a survivor of the USS Frederick C. Davis (DE 136) to a unidentified CVE. (Photo taken from "United States Destroyer Operations in World War 11", by Theodore Roscoe Robert Hurst
    Flaherty 50k Oil Painting showing Flaherty underway (© Sam L. Massette) From The DESA archives
    View the USS Flaherty (DE 135) DANFS history entry
    located on the Naval History and Heritage Command web site.
    Flaherty's Commanding Officers
    Thanks to Wolfgang Hechler & Ron Reeves
    Dates of Command Commanding Officers
    1.) 26 Jun. 1943 - Oct. 1943Lcdr. Maxim William Firth (comm.)
    2.) Oct. 1943 - Sep. 1944Lcdr. Means Johnston, Jr. (ret. as Adm.)
    3.) Sep. 1944 - Dec. 1945Lcdr. Howard Carlton Duff
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    Last Reunion Info We Have:
    Task Force 22.3 & CVE 60 Guadalcanal,
    Spring of 2004, at Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Ill.
    Contact Name: Roger Cozens
    Address: 2528 13th Avenue / Greeley CO 80631
    Phone: (970) 352-3022
    E-mail: R. Cozens
    Note About Contacts

    Contact information is compiled from various sources over a period of time and may, or may not, be correct. Every effort has been
    made to list the newest contact. However, our entry is only as good as the latest information that's been sent to us. We list only
    a contact for the ship if one has been sent to us. We do NOT have crew lists or rosters available. Please see the Frequently Asked
    Questions section on Navsource's Main Page for that information.

    Additional Resources
    Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
    Tin Can Sailors
    The Destroyer History Foundation
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    This Page Created And Maintained by Mike Smolinski
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    by Paul R. Yarnall, All Rights Reserved.
    Page Last Updated 16 March 2013