On 27 August 1983 the USS Kidd (DD-661) was opened as a museum- memorial in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is the third, and in all probability the last of the famous Fletcher (DD-445)- class destroyers to be saved from the scrap pile. Powerful, rugged, fast, and dependable, the 175 Fletchers were the most common type of destroyer built in World War II. They were the mainstay of the U. S. destroyer force in the Pacific. But, at one time, it looked as though none of these historic ships would be saved for posterity. This is the story of how the Kidd came to be one of the fortunate few.
The Kidd fought a typical campaign for a Pacific fleet “can.” Built by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny, New Jersey, she was commissioned 23 April 1943 with Commander Allen Roby commanding. She earned six battle stars in the westward push to Japan, starting in the Gilberts, and going on to Okinawa. There, on 11 April 1945, while stationed as a radar picket ahead of a fast carrier group, she was hit by a single kamikaze in the forward fireroom. Thirty-eight men were killed and 55 bounded, including the captain and executive officer. Damage was extensive, but by cross-connecting her plant she was able to steam for Ulithi at 20 knots. She buried her dead on the same day that President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. Eventually she received a thorough overhaul at Hunters Point Navy Yard in San Francisco, including the antiaircraft augmentation authorized on 27 April. This, however, was to be the Kidd's last action of the war since she was not placed back m service until 8 August. A cruise to Hawaii completed her war steaming. She returned to San Diego, where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve.
In 1951, the Kidd was recommissioned for Korean War service, and continued making deployments to the Western Pacific until 1959 when she was transferred I the Atlantic. The Kidd operated as a Naval Reserve trainer out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Newport, Rhode Island, until she was decommissioned and placed in reserve in Philadelphia in 1964. She remained there until 1975 when, deemed unfit for further service, she was stricken from the naval list of vessels.
About this time, the Navy responded to public interest in having Fletcher-c\ass ships preserved. Three Fletchers were set aside for use as possible memorials, provided civic groups could raise sufficient funds, provide final mooring places, and properly display the vessels.
The first of the three to be selected was the USS The Sullivans (DD-537). The USS Cassin Young (DD-793) was chosen next. Finally there was the Kidd, placed on the memorial list thanks to the strength of Harold Monning, a World War II enlisted man on board the Kidd, and the Destroyer Squadron 48 Association. Congressman W. Henson Moore (R-LA) and the citizens of Louisiana were looking for a suitable memorial to honor Louisiana’s veterans and to focus attention on the importance of the Mississippi River to the state. Four years of planning and fund-raising were required to bring the Kidd to Louisiana. The state legislature established a commission to oversee the project, the city of Baton Rouge donated the land, and a major fundraising project was undertaken. The state matched private contributions based on projections that admission ticket revenue would make the ship self-sustaining once she was opened to the public. Plans and specifications were drawn up and approved by the Navy, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, and environmental agencies.
One of the most difficult problems the commission faced was how to moor the ship in a river with a seasonal rise and fall that can be as much as 40 feet. A concrete cradle was poured into the river bottom at low water about 100 yards from the levee, and functioned in the same manner as the blocks in a dry dock. She now rides up and down with the seasonal change of the river. In effect, the Kidd drydocks herself when the river falls below 28 feet 5 inches in depth. In the spring, she floats free, as if at sea. In the fall, her entire underwater body is exposed for all to walk under and examine.
Unlike many of the ships in the inactive fleet, the Kidd escaped the cannibalization that befalls many of the ships in mothballs. The ship was essentially complete, and except for the usual postwar armament reductions and electronics updates, she was very close to her VJ- Day 1945 configuration. She still had a pole mast, such a rarity within her class that her own damage-control plans show her with a tripod. She still had all five of her single 5-inch/38-caliber gun mounts. The commission recognized the historical significance of displaying a Fletcher- class destroyer in her 1945 configuration and set about trying to obtain the equipment necessary to backfit her.
The first steps were taken while the ship was in Philadelphia. The commission contracted with the Navy to mount two twin 40-mm. guns forward of the bridge in place of the “hedgehog” antisubmarine warfare projectors. Prior to being sunk as a target, the only other Fletcher remaining in Philadelphia, the USS Caperton (DD-650), gave the Kidd her old Mk-14 21-inch torpedo tubes, a Mk-27 torpedo director, two Mk-63 gun directors, and her boat boom. With that outfit, the Kidd was towed to Baton Rouge in April 1982.
During the initial phase of restoration, the welding machine, low-pressure air compressor, and lighting and ventilation systems were activated. The National Guard loaned the Kidd a diesel generator to provide electricity. Staff and volunteers began removing dehumidification piping and opening the ship up.
The second phase of restoration was contracted to a local shipyard. All fuel oil tanks were cleaned and degassed. The hull frames were reinforced where the hull was in contact with the dolphins, and the ship’s half of the mooring collars were welded on. A series of alterations was begun to restore the ship to her 1945 configuration. The “roof’ and “windows” were removed from the open bridge, and items such as the inflatable life raft racks and fantail winch were removed. In some cases postwar equipment, such as the Mk-25 fire-control radar and the SPS-10 surface search radar were remounted until the wartime Mk- 12/22 fire control and SG surface search radar antenna sets could be found. Some of the 1945 equipment would prove difficult to find.
With the ship in her final mooring, sewer, water, and electrical lines were run to the ship. Contractors began sandblasting and priming the exterior. Compressors and hoppers were set up on the levee and a mass of hoses was run out to the ship. For a time, the decks resembled a desert, but slowly the rust and scale gave way to the blue-gray tones of measure 22 camouflage. Colored paint chips were used to match the original colors she carried in 1945. When the river dropped to expose the underwater body, the hull below the waterline was sandblasted and painted. When the work was completed topside, interior work was started. That work continued all summer as compartments were scaled, cleaned, reinsulated, primed, painted, trimmed, and stenciled. One memorable day in July 1983 the aluminum gangway arrived, eliminating countless trips back and forth by boat. For staff and volunteers, there was a myriad of repairs to be made, and equipment to be broken out and reassembled.
As opening day drew closer, the commission’s commitment to historical authenticity and detail became evident. Safety glass and expanded metal panels were installed in compartment doors for public viewing. Each compartment was treated as a display case into which innumerable artifacts were collected and arranged just as they would have been when sailors lived and worked on board. The local citizens answered the call for display items with everything from old typewriters and ships’ clocks to a Jane Russell pinup. Compartments were labeled and functions explained. A 50-page guidebook was written, and a guide staff was hired and trained.
As with opening days everywhere, the ship was just barely ready. Fittingly, her first official visitors were the members of the USS Kidd Destroyer Squadron 48 Association. They journeyed from across the country to walk again on the Kidd’s decks at their annual reunion.
On 27 August 1983, the Kidd was opened to the general public. To date, more than 360,000 visitors have walked her decks and viewed the cramped compartments of this gallant warrior to learn something of past technology and the rugged seagoing lifestyle.
Restoration work continues as additional shipboard spaces are opened to the public, and hard-to-find equipment is located to make the ship as authentic as possible. Many items, once so plentiful, are now scarce. Casual mention to a Dutch NATO captain about the difficulty in locating obsolete ordnance in the United States resulted in the Netherlands sending the fleet oiler Zuiderkruis on a port visit to Baton Rouge on Thanksgiving Day 1984. On board were two twin 20-mm. gun mounts, two Mk-6 “K” guns, and 12 20-mm. magazine drums. From thousands of miles away, in Port Hueneme, California, came other prizes. The USS Tolman (DM-28, ex-DD-740) was slated to be used as a target. The surface targets section gave permission to take parts from the 2,200-ton destroyer. She had not been in service since 1946. Though previously heavily stripped, she yielded many treasures including a 36-inch searchlight and platform, the old Mk-12/22 fire-control radar antenna, an SG-2 radar antenna, four “K” guns, and a multitude of smaller items. On the same trip to the West Coast, six 25-man balsa life rafts were located at Seal Beach, California.
Other items such as Mk-15 gunsights, Mk-9 depth charges, arbors, steam torpedoes, and a steam siren evade us, but during the past six years the motto of the restoration crew has become “If we can't find it, we’ll make it.” Examples of such homespun resourcefulness are the reconstruction of the gun tubs and splinter shields, the bases and roller loaders for the depth-charge projects, and the floater nets. Dummy wooden five-inch shells were even handmade.
While the search for material continues, construction of a two-story museum and Nautical Historic Center located on the other side of the levee, adjacent to the Kidd, was completed in 1987. This building helps visitors understand how the Kidd and her crew worked and lived, and what their place is in history.
On 27 June 1981, a new USS Kidd, (DD-993) was commissioned, with weapons and sensors more powerful than the commissioning crew of the DD-661 would have ever dreamed possible. A new chapter in the history of the Kidd is being written as the DD-993 patrols faraway oceans in her service to our nation. The old Kidd, the DD-661, will continue to serve our nation by recalling for visitors how the United States met the challenges of the past.