USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774) Memorial Web Site

The Champion Kamikaze Killer

Last Update August 28, 2011


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The Champion Kamikaze Killer
11 May 1945 0755 to 0935, Radar Picket Station # 15, northwest ofOkinawa.
All time Gunnery record of any ship in a surface engagement .
Fired 801 rounds 5"38 CAL, 8,950 rounds 40MM, & 5,990 rounds 20mm.
Hit by three(3) Kamikazes, one 500 pound bomb, one smaller bomb. 

Check back soon for a recap of the 18th Reunion, which took place
in May 2010 in Branson, Missouri.

The Hadley wascommissioned on 25 November 1944, decommissioned
15 December 1945 and was scrapped shortly after. It lived for only 385days.
The story of this ship and it's men is unique in naval history in thatit applies
 to all those men whose names and pictures appear in the followingpages. 

Hadley Webmaster Robert I. Eaton, Jr.set sail on his final cruise last April.
 His obituary as published in the Antelope ValleyPress
on April 8th, 2010 can be viewed by clicking here.

An opinion piece written about Robert and the Greatest Generation
by Dennis Anderson, the editor of The AntelopeValley Press,
can be viewed by clicking here.

17thREUNION -  Wrap Up - is now added to our 'Reunion Section
See photograph, surviving Hadley crew members.
 

ATTENTIONATTENTION ATTENTION

CAPT Baron J. Mullaney's''COMBAT ACTION REPORT", 11 May 1945.
It's here. See HISTORY/CAPT Mullaney Combat Report.
 
Open BIOS Section fornewest  entry.  W. O. (Bill) Winter has
presented us his story and it is a very successful one at that.
 

Using a littleintelligence and adding two and two we have determined
that our Marine Corp operated F4U Corsairs operated from Yontan Air
Field.  The first captured Japanese base. See Index,Pictures/Enemy.

Open MEDALS SECTION. Slewdown to last picture. It is replica of the
Certificate from the Governor of the State of Maryland, presented tothe
   crew of Hadley for recognition of their achievements on 11May 1945.   

See Miscellanies SECTION for Picture of Frank &Stella Boffi also
upgrade to pix of Art & Rose Lowery.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

On October 12, 2000, 17 Americansailors were killed
in a vicious kamikaze boat attack on the USS Cole. Eight
years later the charges against this attack's mastermind,
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were dropped as part of plans
to close Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay. Don't let this
injustice stand. Call your Representative or Senator
and demand justice. Hang a noose from the ship's
mast of the USS Cole!

Those 20th century Kamikazes remain with us today,
only with a new name.  Continue to be vigilant andbe 
aware that they can be anyplace.

KEEPYOUR EYES AND EARS OPEN!
As of 20 November 2009, more than 28,000 people have visited this site. 
It is our hope that we have supplied some facts and background to
give you folks a feeling of what it was like to sail on a World War II
Destroyer.  We continue to seek out any new information about
the USS Hugh W.Hadley or its shipmates.     

Now working on 29,000
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This page and allpages within www.usshadley.com, are copyright of Robert I. Eaton, 1996.
 

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