Important Dates
Date Activity Source
19 Nov 1941 Laid down/Keel Date, Staten Island, Bethlehem Shipping Corporation
First Commanding Officer: Cdr. J.N. Opie, III
1, 2
7 July 1942 Launched 1
14 Nov 1942 Commissioned 1
1943 Aleutians Operation 4
6 July - 15 August 1943 Re-Taking of Kiska
Operation Cottage
Task Group 16.21
----------------------------
Short Description of Operation Cottage
Softening up Kiska
8
1943-4 Bismarck Archipelago Operation 4
26 December 1943 Bombardment of New Britain
----------------------------
Bismarck Archipelago Overview
8, 10
1944 Eastern New Guinea Operations 4
29 Feb 1944 - 18 May 1944 Admiralty Islands Campaign (New Guinea)
Task Group 74
Rear Admiral R.S. Berkey
----------------------------
Admiralty Islands campaign
8
15 Sep 1944 Destroyers to Morotai
Task Group 77.2
Rear Admiral R.S. Berkey
----------------------------
USS Fletcher DD-445 Morotai Action Report
8
1944 Hollandia Operation 4
22 April 1944 Hollandia Landings
Operation Reckless
Task Group 77.3
----------------------------
Landings from USS Swanson
8
1944 Western New Guinea Operations 4
~ May/June 1944 BIAK ISLAND INVASION
Task Force 77
----------------------------
Invasion from USS Swanson
 
20 Oct 1944 Leyte Operation
Task Force 77
DesRon 24
----------------------------
After Action Report USN
THE LAST GUNFIGHT, The Battle of Surigao Strait 1944
8, 9
28 February and 5 March Iwo Jima Operation
----------------------------
Iwo Jima Operation from Naval Heritage
8
1945 Okinawa Gunto Operation 4
13 May 1945 Battle of Okinawa
Operation Iceburg
Commanding Officer: Lt Comdr. A.R. McFarland
Hit by kamikaze, Okinawa - 41 killed; 32 wounded
----------------------------
Battle of Okinawa from Wikipedia
Damage to Bache from National Association of Destroyer Veterans
5, 8
25 May 1945 left Okinawa in convoy OKS-5 5
13 Jul 1945 arrived NY Navy Yard 5
27 Oct 1945 Participant Presidential Fleet Review, NY Pier 1
4 Feb 1946 placed in reserve, Charleston, SC 5
17 Jan 1947 decommission, laid up in Charleston Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet 5
21 June 1950 towed to Boston Naval Shipyard 5
1 Oct 1951 Recommissioned 1
2 Jan 1951 Reclassified DDE-470 1
1954 assisted in evaluation of the first Nuclear Submarine 5
Fall 1957 Destroyer Division 282
NATO Manuevers, Europe
13
Mar 1958 assigned to Task Group ALFA, experimental group tasked with the development and teaching of antisubmarine defense techniques and procedures 5
1959 Task Group ALFA anti-submarine exercises in Atlantic 1
19 Dec 1960 Recovery ship for Mercury-Restone 1-A (unmanned NASA mission) 6, 7
13 Apr 1961 - 26 Apr 1961 Cuba: Bay of Pigs
----------------------------
Bay of Pigs from Wikipedia
3
29 Jun 1962 - 11 Aug 1962
Cuba: Cuban Missile Crisis ----------------------------
Missile Crisis from National Security Archive
Missile Crisis from Dept of the Navy
3
30 June 1962 Reverted to DD-470 1
25 Oct 1962 - 05 Nov 1962 Cuban Missile Blockade
HUK Group Alfa (compased of carrier, USS Randolf, and destroyers, USS Bache, Beale, Cony, Eaton & Murray)
----------------------------
Blockade from Dept of Navy
3, 11, 12
14 May 1965 - 15 May 1965 Dominican Republic Intervention ----------------------------
Intervention from Wikipedia
3
1965-66 Vietnam 3
6 Feb 1968 Wrecked, Rhode Island, Greece 1
26 Feb 1968 decommissioned 5
1 March 1968 name struck from Navy list 1


Sources
Note that sources with links will take you to pages that are not connected to this website. When you click on them, the link will pop up in a new tab or a new window.
1 www.navsource.org/archives/05/470.htm
2 http://www.hullnumber.com/DD-470
3 http://www.goatlocker.org/resources/nav/1650.pdf
4 http://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/desron24/
5 http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/b1/bache-ii.htm
6 http://recovery_ships.rossjsmith.com/recovery-mercury/mr_1a_cachets.htm
7 Don Blair, Splashdown: NASA and the Navy (available at Amazon)
8 see also US Destroyer Operations in WWII by Theodore Roscoe
9 The Last Epic Naval Battle: Voices from Leyte Gulf by David Sears
10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bache_(DD-470)
11 October Fury by Peter Huchthausen
12 Cuba 1962-62, The Closet to Nuclear War to Date
13 Rear Admiral Roger Warde Paine, Jr.