Эсминец «Пруитт» времен Второй мировой войны

Clemson class destroyer

USS Pruitt (DD 347/DM 22/AG 101) was a United States Navy destroyer in commission from 1920 to 1945. She saw service during World War II. She was named for United States Marine Corps Corporal John H. Pruitt, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient who was killed in action Western Front on 4 October 1918 during the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge.

Pruitt was laid down on 25 June 1919 by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. She was launched on 2 August 1920, sponsored by Mrs. Belle Pruitt, and commissioned on 2 September 1920. In 1935 Lieutenant (junior grade) Richard O'Kane, who later would be awarded the Medal of Honor as the most successful U. S. submarine officer of World War II, reported for duty aboard Pruitt. Pruitt was converted to a light minelayer and accordingly redesignated DM 22 on 30 June 1937. O'Kane served aboard Pruitt until her minelayer conversion was complete.

A unit of Mine Division 1, Pruitt was undergoing overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941, with George Stephen Morrison, a future rear admiral, on board when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. At 07:53, Japanese planes flew over the base at low altitude and within minutes some of Pruitts crew had sprinted to other ships and fired their first bullets. Others manned fire hoses and helped distribute ammunition during the attack. At the end of January 1942, Pruitt completed overhaul and took up offshore patrol and minelaying duties with the Hawaiian Sea Frontier until June 1942. On 19 June 1942, she departed Hawaii for Bremerton, Washington, from which she steamed to the Aleutian Islands for minelaying operations and escort assignments from a base at Kodiak, Alaska. Into the fall of 1942, she continued operations in the Aleutians, interrupted by regular runs back to the Hawaiian Islands. She then took up escort duties along the United States West Coast.