U.S. Navy ships named Worden:
This site is dedicated to the crew of U.S.S. Worden (DD 352), whose ship foundered during the initial Aleutians operations in January 1943. Worden was a Farragut-class destroyer designed by the naval architecture center at Carderock, Maryland, and launched in 1934 at Puget Sound, Washington.
Worden survived the Pearl Harbor attack and served at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway, assisted the invasions of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and finally ran aground while landing a spearhead unit of Alaska Scouts and army volunteers on Amchitka Island, Alaska. Out of a crew of 186, 14 died — most from freezing in the midwinter Bering Sea.
Worden’s Alaska mission was so secret that the sinking was not announced until 1945. Worden’s name does not appear in the official published history of the Aleutians campaign. Nothing marks its grave, and the entire island remains off-limits to civilians.
Today, Worden’s bell is preserved as the official command bell at the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in West Bethesda, Maryland. A mural depicting Worden is nearby.
Comments, memoirs and images of Worden memorabilia are appreciated. Please email scanned images or your suggestions to Walter Baranger Jr.. Reminiscences of Worden veterans are especially solicited.