(Named for Rear Admiral Joseph Bulloch Coghlan)

Type and Characteristics - DD-421, Destroyer, Benson-class, built by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., Inc., San Francisco, Calif., launched 12 February 1942, sponsored by Mrs. G. Coghlan; Displacement 1,620 tons; length 347ft, beam 36ft, draft 17ft 4in; speed 38 knots, range 6,000m.; main engines: four Babcock & Wilcox boilers, General Electric SR geared turbines; two shafts; 50000 SHP (37 MW) ; armament: 4 x 5", 5 x 21" tt.; crew 262.

Log Period and Areas of Service - 1942-47, Aleutian Islands and Western Pacific.

Summary of Service

[Note: Coghlan (DD-421) earned eight battle stars during World War II. A more extensive accounting is at DANFS.]

10 July 1942 - Commissioned, Lt. Commander B. F. Tompkins in command.

22 September 1942 - Sailed via Pearl Harbor for Kodiak, Alaska, arriving 13 October for convoy and patrol duty.

1943 - She supported Army landings, and participated in the bombardment of Gibson Island and Battle of the Komandorski Islands.

1 September 1943 - Arrived at Pearl Harbor; she then participated in the raids on Baker and Tarawa Islands, the attacks on Wake and the Gilberts islands.

1944 - She screened carriers in the Marshalls, was escort to Majuro, screened landing at the invasion of Saipan, and supported the landings at Tinian.

6 November 1944 - Sailed for the operations in the Philippines, conducting convoy escort duty and supporting the landings at Ormoc Bay.

9 January 1945 - She supported the landings at Lingayen Gulf.

8 April 1945 - Went for a stateside overhaul.

26 August 1945 - Arrived at Okinawa for occupation duty.

23 October 1945 - She sailed for Pearl Harbor and home.

2 December 1945 - Arrived at Charleston, S.C., for overhaul.

31 March 1947 - After a year of inactivity, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve.

Fate - Decommissioned 31 March 1947 and placed in Charleston, S.C., reserve; struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 July 1971 and sold for scrap in 1974.

Links: DANFS, Wikipedia

 

A general note on the sources.