From Wikipedia.
The USS Mugford, DD-389, was a Bagley-class destroyer and the second ship in the US Navy to bear the name of James Mugford, the commander of the schooner Franklin in the Continental navy.
It was commissioned 16 August 1937 and decommissioned 29 August 1946 and scuttled 22 March 1948. It was 341 feet long, 35 foot beam, and mounted 4 X 5 inch guns, 4 X 50 calibre guns, and 12 X 21 inch torpedo tubes.
The Mugford was at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, as the Flagship of Destroyer Division 8 and was in the Navy Yard for repairs. It shot down three Japanese planes in ten minutes and was able to get underway. Within an hour, the Mugford was steaming out of Pearl Harbor with guns blazing.
On May 15, 1943, the Mugford rescued survivors of the AHS Centaur which had been sunk by a Japanese submarine the day before.
On Aug. 7th, it was at Guadalcanal and was hit by a bomb and narrowly missed two others. Two more Japanese planes were shot down while the Mugford had 8 killed, 17 wounded, and 10 missing.
She went on to participate in most of the actions in the Pacific, earning 7 Battle Stars.
Two years later, the Mugford participated in Operation Crossroads, the Bikini Atomic Tests. Afterwards, it was retained for decontamination experiments and was sunk off Kwajalein on 22 March 1948.
Interesting Ship Story. -- Old Cooter
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