The USS Currier was a Buckley-class destroyer escort built by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan. Launched on the 14th of October 1943, it was commissioned on the 1st of February the following year, with Cdr. Alfred L. Lind in command. Her first escort task took her to Casablanca, and then along the North African coast to Oran, Bizerte, and then north to Palermo and Gibraltar. August 1944 will see her provide screening for the largely forgotten assault landing into southern France, followed by guard duty for the convoys providing supplies to the invading troops. Between 10 and 20 September, the USS Currier was the commanding ship of an escort flotilla guarding the supply lines for Allied troops in Italy. In November 1944 she will head for the Pacific and visit Eniwetok, Ulithi, Guam, and Iwo Jima alongside supply convoys and attack transports. On the 28th of August, she will be one of the ships to accept the surrender of the Japanese garrison on Rota. A less remarkable accolade is that the ship’s interior contained a lot of asbestos, which might have endangered her crew throughout her decades-spanning career. The dangerous mineral was found throughout, but mostly in the engine, damage control, propulsion, ward, and powder rooms.
760-621-6147
