USS Sicard

The USS Sicard was among the American ships that were attacked in Pearl Harbor during the 1941 Japanese surprised attack on Pearl Harbor.

The USS Sicard DD-346 started life as a Clemson -class destroyer, one of the many that were constructed for the U.S. Navy during and just after WWI. Unlike many of her sisters who were kept in the reserve fleet, she saw active service with the Navy in the inter-war years. In 1937, the USS Sicard entered into Naval Shipyard Pearl Harbor for conversion into a Destroyer Minelayer and was redesignated DM-21. The U.S. Navy converted a number of destroyers to the role of ocean-going minelayers. She was docked at Naval Shipyard Pearl Harbor for an overhaul when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. As she was undergoing an overhaul, she had almost no ammunition aboard and sent crew members to assist in manning the guns on other ships.

The USS Sicard was tasked with conducting anti-submarine patrols in the wake of Pearl Harbor. She was also assigned to lay minefields off French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, as well as minefields around Kodiak, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands. She missed the participation in the Aleutian Islands campaign due to a collision with the destroyer USS Macdonough. She was repaired in time to participate in the Solomon Islands Campaign. The USS Sicard and other minelayers participated in minelaying and convoy escort duty. From September of 1943, the USS Sicard was transferred to the Southwest Pacific area of operations, where she participated in laying minefields and convoy escort duties. She spent the last part of the war undergoing training exercises until the end of the war. The USS Sicared was decommissioned on October 21, 1945.

Killed on the Pennsylvania