History
Gridley was launched by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, California, 4 July 1918; sponsored by Mrs. Francis P. Thomas, daughter of Captain Gridley, and commissioned 8 March 1919, Comdr. Frank Jack Fletcher in command.
After fitting out at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Gridley departed San Diego 24 March 1919, transited the Panama Canal, and joined the Destroyer Force for maneuvers in Cuban waters. She then repaired briefly at Norfolk, Virginia, before putting into New York 26 April 1919. Gridley's first assignment was with a group of destroyers posted along the route of the Navy's transatlantic seaplane flight. Gridley and her companions sent up smoke and flare signals to guide the intrepid flyers and with the help of the surface ships NC-4 was able to land in the dense fog at the Azores 17 May 1919. Subsequently Gridley participated in the search for NC-1, forced down in the fog, and then acted as guard ship on the last leg of NC-4's historic flight, which was completed at Plymouth, England, 31 May 1919.
Gridley arrived at Brest, France, 31 May and spent the next 2 months in various ports of the Mediterranean transporting passengers and making goodwill visits. She arrived back at New York 31 July. Operating out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Gridley embarked Major General Lejeune and Brigadier General Butler of the Marine Corps at Charleston 2 September 1920, for an inspection tour of Caribbean bases and commands, including posts in Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Her distinguished passengers disembarked 27 September 1920.
In the following years Gridley was active training officers and men of the Naval Reserve Force, operating out of Charleston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia. She decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 22 June 1922 and remained inactive until her name was stricken from the Navy List 25 January 1937. Gridley’s hulk was sold for scrapping 19 April 1939.
Read more about this topic: USS Gridley (DD-92)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)