by Dale Haskin
| USS Kidd DD661 is a museum ship based in Baton Rouge, LA. The Kidd is a late war Fletcher Class, but it is configured and painted as it was in 1945. Some of the outwardly visible differences between the Kidd and Fletchers with later conversions and equipment updates are: | |
| 1) It still has dual 40 mm AA guns in port and starboard tubs located
on the O-1 level below and slightly forward of the bridge. An early conversion
of this class replaced these gun tubs with ASW Hedgehog mounts and Hedgehog
storage magazines.
2) Main fire control radar is still of the WWII variety. Note the director's array antenna as opposed to the later parabolic type. 3) It is still equipped with port and starboard main deck mounted 20 mm AA guns aft of the quad 40mm gun tubs. Removed after the war. |
for larger image. 
starboard side vertical shot |
| 4) The torpedo mount is not equipped with a protective housing over
its control station. Round silo "dog house" added later.
5) It is still equipped with port and starboard main deck mounted depth charge projectors (K-guns). Removed from others with the conversion to Hedgehogs. Post WWII Fletchers also had the port depth charge rack removed, leaving only the starboard rack. 6) The hull is painted in accordance with Navy camouflage measure 22, including small hull numbers on the bow. 7) Funnel caps are painted gray rather than black. |
the main deck beneath the Captain's Gig |
| 8) It is equipped with a port side access ladder from the main deck
to the O-1 level between mounts 53 and 54. I believe this was added to
accommodate visitors.
9) There is also a difference between this ship and ships with subsequent equipment updates relative to air search, surface search, ECM and radio antennae mounted. At the time of my visit in the late eighties, Combat Information Center was nothing but a shambles, with wires and equipment all over the place. I was able to help the museum's curator determine what everything was and where it went. I also gave him a complete list of all communication and tactical publications maintained in CIC. |
View aft from the forecastle |
| After last setting foot on a Fletcher 30 years prior to my visit, it was amazing how, without any effort, I could remember all the compartments on the ship and how to get to them. It was just like coming back from leave, except the ladders were harder to get up and down. |
the after deck house and mounts 54 & 55 |
| Links: |
starboard side shot |
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