Destroyers: Gearing Class

[Brian James]

Gearing Class Destroyer USS Henderson pictured departing Mare Island Navy Yard following her FRAM I conversion refit on March 20th 1962.

[Brian James]

Gearing Class Destroyer USS Rodgers pictured off Orange Texas on March 31st 1945. Rogers's keel was laid down on June 3rd 1944 at Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas. She was launched on November 20th 1944 and commissioned on March 26th 1945. Orange was a shipbuilding town during WWII with major civilian shipyards including Consolidated Steel Corporation, Levingston Shipbuilding Company, and Weaver Shipyards. At the end of the war in November 1945 the shipyards were closed and the base was turned into the Texas Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet with 250 ships. From 1941 to 1945, Orange’s population ballooned from a few thousand to about 70,000. We visited Orange a couple of years back, sadly, after the closure of many of the shipyards, the town has fallen back to population of about 20,000.

[Brian James]

Gearing Class Destroyer USS Dennis J. Buckley pictured in dry Dock at Puget Sound Navy Yard on October 19th 1964.