USS Cassin (DD-372) was a in the United States Navy before and during World War II. She was the second ship named for Stephen Cassin, an officer in the United States Navy. Mrs. Lombard, at age nine, had also sponsored the first in 1913.
Service history
Cassin underwent alterations until March 1937, then cruised to the Caribbean and Brazil.
On 18 August 1937 the Cassin was in dry dock #2 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard when she suffered a ruptured steam line. Four civilians in the engine room were killed. Ten more, both sailors and civilians were injured.
In April 1938 she joined the fleet at Pearl Harbor for the annual fleet exercises in the Hawaiian Islands and the Panama Canal Zone. During 1939, she operated on the West Coast with torpedo and gunnery schools, and on 1 April 1940 was assigned to the Hawaiian Detachment. Cassin sailed on maneuvers and patrol in the Pacific, cruising from February to April 1941 to Samoa, Australia, and Fiji. Fall of 1941 found her calling at West Coast ports. With the same force which had struck at Marcus, Cassin sailed on to join TG 38.1 on 16 October. Cassin steamed northeast of Luzon during the Leyte landings, and when the landings had been successfully launched, was dispatched with her group to refuel and replenish at Ulithi. However, when TF 38 made contact with the Japanese Center Force rounding the southern cape of Mindoro, bound for its part in the Battle for Leyte Gulf, Cassins group was recalled to join the approaching action. In the afternoon of 25 October, her group at last reached position to launch aircraft which attacked the Japanese ships in one of the longest-range carrier strikes of the war. Her ship's bell resides at the Office of Naval Intelligence in Suitland, MD.
Awards
Cassin received six battle stars for World War II service.