The USS Johnston has finally been located.
She was lost during the battle of Leyte Gulf on October the 25th 1944 when she engaged a vastly superior Japanese force off the Samar Island, allowing the escort carriers time to escape.
With Native American Captain Commander Ernest Evans at the helm, the destroyer played an instrumental role in buying time for the US escort carriers during the battle and was fittingly awarded a Presidential Unit Citation (the highest award that can be given to a ship). Evans was also awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for his bravery and was the first Native Amerian to receive such a decoration.
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I'm hopeful that at some point they will find the U.S.S. Hoel DD-533 and the U.S.S. Samuel B. Roberts DE-413 that were lost in the same battle.
All awesome fighting ships and crews....
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! -- Mark Twain
I find it fascinating how the steel shipwrecks from that general period vary so greatly in condition - from the Titanic becoming little more than an orange stain on the sea floor to the ID numbers still being clearly visible on the Johnston.
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
Another interesting incident was one of the escort carriers in Taffy 3 took on a Japanese Cruiser with her 5" "stinger" located on her stern, causing enough damage that the Cruiser retired from the fight.
From start to finish...one of greatest sea battles in history...
There is an unsubstantiated rumor that there were some 1911s made from Graf Spee steel...
Fortunately, the wreck sites/war graves in the Pacific are far too deep to salvage for the most part...