USS Kidd (DD-661)

Type

Destroyer

Period

20th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: USS Kidd (DD-661) is a Fletcher-class destroyer and the first US Navy ship named for Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who died aboard USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. She is preserved today as a museum ship and National Historic Landmark in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Specifications: As built she displaced 2,050 tons, measured 376 ft (115 m) in length with a 39 ft 8 in beam and 17 ft 9 in draft, and was powered by four oil-fired boilers driving two steam turbines for 60,000 shp, giving a top speed of 35 knots. Her complement was 329 officers and men, and she carried the standard Fletcher-class armament and fit typical of a WWII fleet destroyer. Service History: Kidd was launched 28 February 1943 at Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Kearny, New Jersey, and commissioned that April, going on to escort carriers and battleships across the Pacific, screening strikes on Wake Island, Tarawa, and Rabaul. She was struck by a kamikaze off Okinawa on 11 April 1945, losing 38 crewmen, and after WWII inactivation she was recommissioned for the Korean War, serving into the early 1960s before her final decommissioning in 1964. Notable Facts: Nicknamed the "Pirate of the Atlantic & Pacific," Kidd is one of only a small number of surviving Fletcher-class destroyers and is noted for retaining her WWII-era configuration, making her a valuable reference for modelers seeking accurate wartime detail rather than a later Cold War refit appearance. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and remains berthed on the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge as a public museum ship.