Sunk on purpose by Navy Skyhawks in 1968, she lies somewhere on the bottom of the Pacific off Baja, CA. But while she lived, as related in Little Ship Big War, The Saga of DE343, she was a microcosm of World War II and its civilian and professional sailors.
Even down to her irascible captain who fled her, unceremoniously, in the midst of the nightmarish Okinawa campaign in which she fought off sixteen kamikaze attacks. All deftly explained by one of her officers turned author Cmdr Edward P. Stafford. Well worth the read.
One truly amazing thing about the book is that it was originally published in 1984. You’d never know it by the prose. Nothing seems dated. Amazon is selling used copies of the 2000 edition, but mine looks new.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 