USS Maddox (DD-731), was an . It was named after Captain William A. T. Maddox of the United States Marine Corps.
Maddox screened the ships of the Fast Carrier Task Force during strikes against Japanese targets in the western Pacific. She was hit by a Japanese kamikaze aircraft off Formosa on 21 January 1945. Later, she covered the Marine landings at Okinawa and operated with the 7th Fleet in support of United Nations Forces during the Korean War. Maddox participated in the Blockade of Wonsan, an 861-day siege and bombardment of the city.
After 1953, she alternated operations along the west coast of the United States and in Hawaiian waters, with regular deployments to the western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet. Maddox departed Long Beach 13 March 1964. At first steaming with fast carrier groups in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, she headed south 18 May and established patrol off the coast of South Vietnam. During August she was involved in a skirmish with North Vietnamese torpedo boats, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which led to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Construction and career
She was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath in Maine on 28 October 1943, launched on 19 March 1944 by Mrs. Harry H. Wilhoit, granddaughter of Captain Maddox, and commissioned on 2 June 1944.
Service in the United States Navy
World War II
Following shakedown and antisubmarine exercises, Maddox departed Boston on 27 August for Norfolk, Virginia on route to the Pacific. Arriving at Ulithi 21 October 1944, she was assigned to Fast Carrier TG 38.1 of the 3d Fleet. As a member of this task group, Maddox took part in the preparation and the covering operations for the Mindoro and Luzon invasions, 4 November 1944 to 21 January 1945. During this period she served in the screen and on picket station in the South and East China Seas, while carrier-based planes struck air and naval bases from Saigon to Formosa. Hit by a kamikaze off Formosa on 21 January 1945, Maddox headed for Ulithi for repairs. Departing on 14 March, the destroyer steamed off the Japanese home islands where she was on picket station during the air strikes on Kyushu and southern Honshu. She proceeded to Okinawa on 23 March to provide support for preinvasion strikes, remaining on duty there after the invasion date of 1 April. For almost three months, until 13 June 1945, Maddox continued to provide support for this campaign in the form of shore bombardment and carrier screening for raids on Kyushu and Shikoku.
On 8 July, Maddox sailed from Leyte to participate in the operations of the third Fleet off the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. From 10 July until the cessation of offensive action 15 August, she provided screening, picket, and shore bombardment services.
Following the Japanese surrender, Maddox continued to patrol off Japan until departing Tokyo Bay 20 September with military passengers for the United States. Delivering her passengers to San Francisco on 5 October, she proceeded to San Diego, arriving on the 14th. She operated there until 1 February 1946, when she returned to the Far East to support the movement of naval occupation forces between Shanghai, Qingdao, and Taku in China, and the ports of Pusan and Jinsen in Korea.
Korean War
Returning to San Diego 24 March 1947, she operated for the next three years off the west coast conducting reserve training cruises, serving as a training ship in antisubmarine warfare and gunnery and participating in maneuvers with the 1st Task Fleet.
On 1 May 1950, Maddox departed San Diego for the Far East, arriving Hong Kong 26 June, the day after the commencement of hostilities in Korea. Departing for South Korea the next day, she acted as plane guard and antisubmarine screen for the aircraft carriers and . She operated there until August, when she departed for Formosa. On 4 May, she helped form the initial Formosa (later Taiwan) Patrol Force to prevent Communist Chinese invasion of Taiwan.