USS ''Fair'' (DE-35) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
United States Naval Reserve
The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...
on 15 August 1940, and was commissioned ensign on 14 March 1941. Serving on ,
Lieutenant, junior grade
Lieutenant junior grade is a junior commissioned officer rank used in a number of navies.
United States
Lieutenant (junior grade), commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.) (as well as variants of both abbreviations), i ...
Fair was wounded when his ship was sunk by Japanese gunfire in the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
on 5 September 1942, and he died four days later.
Construction and commissioning
''Fair'' was launched on 27 July 1943 by Mare Island Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. V. N. Fair, Jr., widow of Lieutenant Fair; and commissioned on 23 October 1943.
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
to
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
, where she arrived on 9 January 1944. She put to sea nine days later to conduct an antisubmarine patrol off
Tarawa
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati ''
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
. Attacks by both ships led to the sinking of what was probably Japanese submarine ''I-175'' the next morning. ''Fair'' returned to Pearl Harbor on 17 February, and sailed on 25 February for Majuro, where from 5 March – 12 June, she patrolled the entrance to the lagoon, and escorted ships to and from ocean rendezvous and
Roi Namur
Roi-Namur ( ) is an island in the north part of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Today it is a major part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, hosting several radar systems used for tracking and characterizing miss ...
. On 14 June, she arrived at
Eniwetok
Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...
with three oilers, and for the next 2 weeks, screened them in the fueling area off the
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
as they fueled ships serving in the assault and capture of
Saipan
Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...
.
The escort vessel served on patrol out of Eniwetok from 1–14 July, then returned to screen the logistics group during the assaults on Tinian and
Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 31 August for a brief overhaul and to take part in training operations. On 13 October, ''Fair'' was back at Eniwetok for duty escorting convoys to
Ulithi
Ulithi ( yap, Wulthiy, , or ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap.
Overview
Ulithi consists of 40 islets totaling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest i ...
until 19 January 1945. She continued her escort duty from Eniwetok to Manus, Guam, and
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
until 24 March, when she arrived at Ulithi to stage for the assault on
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
.
Guarding a convoy composed primarily of LSTs, ''Fair'' put out from Ulithi on 27 March, and after the initial assault on 1 April, put into
Kerama Retto
The are a subtropical island group southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan.
Geography
Four islands are inhabited: Tokashiki Island, Zamami Island, Aka Island, and Geruma Island. The islands are administered as Tokashiki Village and Zamami Vill ...
. On 6 April, before getting underway for Saipan with unladen transports, she fired on the massive wave of ''
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...
s'' which attacked shipping off the island, splashing one. After her voyage to Saipan, ''Fair'' patrolled off Chimu Wan, Okinawa until 12 May, then screened the transport area, firing on attacking aircraft and suicide boats for 10 days. Her next assignment was a convoy escort voyage to Saipan and Guam, returning to Okinawa on 10 June for local escort duty and patrol.
''Fair'' cleared Okinawa on 5 July 1945 for a West Coast overhaul. She was decommissioned at
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
on 17 November, and transferred to the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...