USS Laffey (DD-724) is an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, which was constructed during World War II, laid down and launched in 1943, and commissioned in February 1944. The ship earned the nickname “The Ship That Would Not Die” for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when she successfully withstood a determined assault by conventional bombers and the most unrelenting kamikaze air attack in history. Today, Laffey is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is preserved as a museum ship at Patriots Point, outside Charleston, South Carolina.
On 15 April 1945, Laffey was assigned to radar picket station 1 about 30 mi north of Okinawa, and joined in repulsing an air attack which downed 13 enemy aircraft that day. The next day, on 16 April 1945, the Japanese launched another air attack with some 50 planes.
Laffey survived despite being badly damaged by four bombs, six kamikaze crashes, and strafing fire that killed 32 and wounded 71. Assistant communications officer Lieutenant Frank Manson asked Captain Becton if he thought they’d have to abandon ship, to which he snapped, “No! I’ll never abandon ship as long as a single gun will fire.” Becton did not hear a nearby lookout softly say, “And if I can find one man to fire it.â
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