USS Tracy

The USS Tracy (DD-214) was a Clemson-class destroyer commissioned on March 9, 1920. She was part of the U.S. effort to build ships for use in WWI. She was a very active ship in the inter-war period. She transported refugees fleeing Sevastopol during the Russian Civil War. She was assigned to the Asiatic squadron showing the flag in China. In September of 1923, she received orders to head for Yokohama, Japan, to assist in relief efforts in the wake of an earthquake. In 1937, she was converted to a minelayer and redesignated as DM-19. When the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, she was in berth 15, undergoing an overhaul, not far from the Battleship Arizona on Battleship Row and just less than a mile from where is Pearl Harbor Visitor Center today. She was virtually unarmed, and her crew was ashore in barracks. Some crewmembers ran to other ships, such as the USS Pennsylvania, to aid in her defense. One crew member of the USS Tracy died when the USS Pennsylvania was hit by a bomb. Aboard the USS Tracy, her crew tried frantically to find any weapons and ammunition to resist the Japanese attack. After her interrupted overhaul was completed, she was put to sea. She participated in laying a minefield near French Frigate Shoals, a part of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. She participated in the Solomons campaign. For the remainder of the war, she conducted convoy escort duties in the South Pacific. She was decommissioned on January 19, 1946.