[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 106 (Thursday, July 26, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S8278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING THE HISTORY OF THE U.S.S. CASSIN YOUNG, DD-793

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I rise today to call attention to an 
important date in the history of a valiant ship, the U.S. Navy 
Destroyer U.S.S. Cassin Young, DD-793.
  The ship today is moored with the U.S.S. Constitution in Charlestown, 
MA, and has been open to the public under the custody of the National 
Park Service since 1981.
  The Cassin Young was constructed at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyards in 
San Pedro, CA, and commissioned on December 31, 1943. She was named for 
Captain Cassin Young, a true naval hero who received the Medal of Honor 
for valor during the attack on Pearl Harbor and who later lost his life 
during the great naval battle off Guadalcanal on Friday, November 13, 
1942.
  From early 1944 until the end of World War II in 1946, the U.S.S. 
Cassin Young was involved in active combat operations. She suffered 
strafing off the island of Formosa in 1944 and withstood two Japanese 
kamikaze attacks, one of them causing heavy damage. Despite this 
damage, the U.S.S. Cassin Young was repaired locally and returned to 
the battle line. The ship was the last destroyer to be struck by a 
kamikaze during the fight for Okinawa, a battle that was so destructive 
to the U.S. destroyer fleet. The U.S.S. Cassin Young lost 21 crew 
members and saw approximately 100 others injured in combat.
  At war's end, the U.S.S. Cassin Young rested in mothballs until the 
Korean War brought expansion of the U.S. fleet and she was 
recommissioned on September 7, 1951, in Long Beach, CA. During her 
second tour of active duty, the U.S.S. Cassin Young operated with both 
the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Fleets and completed a voyage around 
the world to the Philippines and Korea. She returned to the western 
hemisphere via the Panama Canal and joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet 
in April 1960.
  In addition to her many Service Ribbons and Battle Stars, the U.S.S. 
Cassin Young received the Navy Unit Citation and the Philippine 
Presidential Unit Citation for her actions during World War II and also 
was given the Korean Presidential Unit Citation during the Korean War.
  In 1978, the National Park Service acquired the U.S.S. Cassin Young 
and painstakingly restored her to the configuration under which she 
sailed in the 1950s. Ceremonies commemorating the second commissioning 
of the U.S.S. Cassin Young are scheduled to take place on August 18, 
2001, when the ship will undertake a towed sea trial of Boston Harbor. 
Some 500 individuals, including many of the original crew members from 
both of her tours of duty, will be on board the ship as it tours the 
waters off Massachusetts' capital city. Former crew members and friends 
of the ship have created the U.S.S. Cassin Young Association, which 
counts more than 400 men and women among its members.
  Through the U.S.S. Cassin Young, the citizens of this country and 
visitors from abroad have the opportunity to experience firsthand an 
heroic vessel that represents the sacrifices of our Naval personnel 
during not one, but two, wars.
  It is my sincere desire that the U.S.S. Cassin Young remain available 
to the people of this country far into the future so that she and those 
who served aboard her may continue to receive the honor they so 
deserve.

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