Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description		Contributed By And/Or Copyright
0603201	54k	Richard Eugene Fleming was born 02 November 1917 in St. Paul, Minn. He attended St. Thomas Academy and the University of Minnesota before enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserve for aviation training. He went through the AVCAD (Aviation Cadet Training) program at Wold-Chamberlain Field in Minneapolis and trained at Pensacola. He was sent to the Pacific and was at sea with the U.S. carrier task force during the attack on Pearl Harbor 07 December 1941. He went to Midway Island to help defend against the Japanese assault. On 04 June 1942, he led an attack on one of the three Japanese carriers sunk during the initial battle. On 05 June 1942, he led a bombing attack on the Japanese cruiser Mikuma near Midway. He died when his Vindicator aircraft was struck by the ship’s anti-aircraft fire. Both his bomb and the plane struck the Japanese ship, exploding and disabling it. Fleming was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The South St. Paul Airport is named in honor of Captain Richard E. Fleming. USS Fleming (DE 32) (1943-1945) was the first ship to be named in his honor. (U.S. Marine Corps photo from the USMC History Division)		Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal. Assoc. Researcher Navsource
0603202	121k	16 June 1943: Mrs. W. E. Rutherford christens the USS Fleming (DE 32) at Mare Island Navy Yard. Radm. Wilhelm L. Friedell (Shipyard Commandant) is seen to the far right. (U.S. Navy Photo #DE-32-4415-43)		Darryl Baker PNCM, USNR (ret.) Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum
0603201	133k	16 June 1943: Fleming is way half down the building ways at her launching at Mare Island. (U.S. Navy Photo #DE-32-4426-43)
0603204	88k	16 June 1943: Broadside view of Fleming immediately after her launching. (U.S. Navy Photo #DE-32-4429-43)
0603205	118k	02 July 1943: USS Fleming is seen being outfitted at Mare Island. USS Sederstrom (DE 31) is to the left. The ships are berthed at the foot of the building ways used to construct them. (U.S. Navy Photo #DE-32-4822-43)
0603207	29k	29 October 1943: USS Fleming (DE 32) underway as seen from USS Guadalcanal (CVE 60). Fleming had departed San Diego at 0629 on 27 October to conduct local operations with Guadalcanal and a number of other destroyers. After their exercises the units returned to San Diego, mooring in the Bay on the evening of 29 October. (United States Navy No. USN-383803		Nick Tiberio Shelton, Conn.
0603208	264k	20 January 1944: the South Pacific - Departing Tarawa on 18 January, USS Fleming was serving as ASW screen for USS Pocomoke (AV-9) while escorting her on the first leg of her trip to Pearl Harbor. Pocomoke is trying to lower a gurney to Fleming to bring aboard an enlisted crewmember suffering from acute appendicitis. Heavy swells deterred this effort and Fleming scraped her upperworks trying. Fleming personnel were then coached through the medical procedures by bullhorn. (U.S. Navy photo #NA-80-G-222876 from the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.)		John Chiquoine West Chester, Pa.     and Rick E. Davis Springfield, Oh.
0603206	29k	1944: in Hawaiian waters		Don Gish

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Additional Resources

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Tin Can Sailors
The U.S. Navy Memorial
Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
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The Destroyer History Foundation

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