Qualla: USS Ingersoll (DD-652)

USS Ingersoll (DD-652): Introduction

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Ships. 9/18/1947-5/1/1966, Public domain. Lieutenant Royal R. Ingersoll II died at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, killed not by Japanese fire but by the guns of a crippled American fighter making an emergency landing on the carrier Hornet. The wounded pilot could not, or failed to, cut off his F4F Wildcat's guns, and the strafing bullets killed Ingersoll and four enlisted men while wounding twenty more. A year later, the Navy launched a destroyer bearing his name and that of his grandfather, Rear Admiral Royal R. Ingersoll. At the commissioning ceremony, the dead lieutenant's widow stood alongside his young daughter to christen the ship.

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Image: Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Ships. 9/18/1947-5/1/1966 | Public domain

USS Ingersoll (DD-652): Three Generations at Sea

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. USS Ingersoll carried the weight of naval tradition from her first day. Rear Admiral Royal R. Ingersoll had served as Chief of Staff of the Atlantic Fleet in the early twentieth century. His son, Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, commanded that same fleet during World War II. His grand...

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Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Ingersoll (DD-652): Island Hopping

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. Ingersoll joined Task Force 58 at Pearl Harbor in December 1943, beginning a relentless campaign across the Pacific. She provided fire support for the Marshall Islands invasion, starting with pre-assault bombardment of Kwajalein on January 30, 1944. She screened the fast carriers...

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Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Ingersoll (DD-652): Okinawa to Tokyo Bay

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PH2 J.V. Cullinan, USN, Public domain. The war's final months brought Ingersoll to the waters around Okinawa, serving patrol and picket duty during the bloodiest naval campaign of the Pacific war. On May 24, 1945, she engaged a Japanese suicide boat. The next day, she shot down two aircraft during an air raid. On May ...

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Image: PH2 J.V. Cullinan, USN | Public domain

USS Ingersoll (DD-652): Cold War Warrior

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Decommissioned in 1946, Ingersoll returned to service in 1951 as the Korean War demanded more destroyers. She circled the globe in 1953-54, sailing from Newport to Yokosuka, supporting the Korean armistice, then steaming westward through Singapore and the Suez Canal to return via...

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Image: Public domain

USS Ingersoll (DD-652): Vietnam and Beyond

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chief Journalist Robert D. Moeser, U.S. Navy, Public domain. Ingersoll deployed to Vietnam in 1965, conducting Market Time coastal surveillance patrols and firing 24 gunfire missions against 116 targets along the Vietnamese coast. Three missions took her 12 kilometers up the Saigon River. In 1966, she participated in Operation Sea Dragon, ...

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Image: Chief Journalist Robert D. Moeser, U.S. Navy | Public domain