USS LAFFEY (DD-724)

Class: Allen M. Sumner Destroyer
Launched: November 21, 1943
At: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Commissioned: February 8, 1944

Length: 377 feet
Beam: 41 feet
Draft: 19 feet
Displacement: 2,200 tons
Armament: Six 5-inch/38 caliber guns; six 21-inch torpedo tubes

Address:
Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
40 Patriots Point Road
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
(843) 884-2727
Fax: (843) 881-4232
Email: wwhills@infoave.net
http://www.patriotspoint.org/
Latitude: 32.788425, Longitude: -79.908553
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The only preserved Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer in the U.S., as well as the only surviving U.S. World War II destroyer that saw action in the Atlantic, USS Laffey acted as an escort for convoys to Great Britain. On D-Day, the destroyer helped bombard Utah Beach at Normandy.

Sent into the Pacific, Laffey was involved in one of the most famous destroyer-kamikaze duels in the war. Hit several times, racked by explosions and fires, Laffey remained afloat because of the valiant efforts of her crew to earn the sobriquet "the ship that would not die." Laffey earned five battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation for her World War II service and two battle stars for her Korean War service.

Stricken from the Navy Register in 1977, Laffey is now displayed with the aircraft carrier Yorktown, and submarine Clamagore.

USS Laffey is a National Historic Landmark.

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