Kamikaze Attacks near Surigao Straits
Escorting reinforcements for Ormoc Bay near Surigao Straits Reid destroyed seven Japanese planes, before she sank from repeated kamikaze crashes. Her 150 survivors were picked up by landing craft in her convoy. ...The tradegy of 11 December 1944 was the snuffing out of lives of almost half of the ship's company. They all were at their battle stations fighting to save the Reid one minute, and dead the next. Any way one looks at it, it was an unmitigated disaster. With one or two exceptions these were young people in their teens abd early twenties with their whole lives ahead of them. They were good, well-trained destroyer sailors who had experienced more than their share of close-call air attacks. They didn't do something they shouldn't have done, or fail to do something they should have done. The savagery of the attack was just more than any destroyer could handle - and it cost these men their lives.
We honor their memory and pay tribute to their sacrifice.
CAPT. Rufus C. Porter, USN (Ret)
The last Executive Officer
of the USS REID(DD-369)
We honor their memory and pay tribute to their sacrifice.
CAPT. Rufus C. Porter, USN (Ret)
The last Executive Officer
of the USS REID(DD-369)
