US Navy's Unluckiest Ship With An Untouchable Crew - USS William D. Porter

There was a previous pinned comment that has since been deleted by the original poster. It claimed most of this story was just a myth, because alot of these event where not documented in the ships log book. And that i was "Cheap and lazy" for just repeating internet lore without sources.This was the opening response to that accusation: Nothing about the misfortune of the USS William D. Porter was known until 1958. When a newspaper report covered a USS William D. Porter Reunion. According to the publication “The Naval Reservist” February 1957 edition, the reunion took place March 15 1958. At the Governor Clinton Hotel, in NYC (now the Stewart hotel). At that reunion, ya know the one comprised of the men that served on the willie dee. The reporter was told these stories, and published them in the newspaper. This led to the pentagon “Reluctanty confirming the story”. This was then Documented and put into print by Naval Historian Kermit “Kit” Bonner. He discusses all the the stories i did in the book Final Voyages. The Citation for this: Turner Publishing Company. (1996). The USS William D, Porter, DD-579 “The Saga Of The Willie Dee.” In Final voyages (pp. 25–27). essay. The ISBN for this book if you’d like to check for yourself is: 1563112892, 9781563112898

As an ex Marine that now is a construction superintendent, "can we fix this without telling the boss?" Is EXACTLY what happens! So fucking accurate.

FDR pardoned the torpedo chief because "We shouldn't punish people because we couldn't properly train them". And I couldn't agree more. Also the Kamikaze that sank the USS Porter was most likely a Val because dive bombers wings were designed in a way that the plane passively pulls up. This is to save the crew if the pilot blacks out in a dive. It would perfectly explain why the plane pulled up underwater after a dive.

I was once abord the USS Iowa (highly recommend) and saw a framed picture of the Willie D in the room with FDR's Private tub they had put in for him. There was an author selling a book about the ship's history in there, and overheard me explain the whole torpedo incident to my friends (keep in mind I was about 25 here) and the man stood up and said, I've been here for a week, and seen hundreds of people come in and out of this room, and you're the only one who knew why that picture was there. It both pleased me that it was acknowledged, and made me sad at the same time, since most people don't bother with history anymore. Even when it is a really great tale.

My favorite part of that story has to be the mental image of the captain calling the Iowa to say "sorry, the torpedo was our bad," the uncomfortable silence that must have followed has all parties involved remember the depth charge incident, and then all nine barrels of the last ship you want to offend turn to bear on their ally. "You've been unfriended. Leave, now."

I was on the USS PORTER when she got hit by an oil tanker in the strait of Hormuz in the middle of the night. After 19 hours of damage control and emergency repairs we got the ship into port and as we were laying around exhausted the whole crew kind of mutually came to the agreement that the u.s. Navy needs to stop naming ships after the Porter family.

An old water grunt told me about Willy D Fletcher. He basically summed up that this particular Fletcher wasn't just a clown, but the ENTIRE circus.

The reason why that depth charge fell off the ship. It was because the sailor who strapped it down, didn't pull on the strap and say "That's not going anywhere." Automatically you know that strap was coming loose and the depth charge was rolling off.

Idk why, but the "Longest sitting President, both literally and figuratively" joke made me laugh WAY harder than it should have, lmao 🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭

My great uncle served on the Willie D. He always said that when the plane blew up, everyone on the ship thought they were goners but apparently their guardian angels were working overtime that day.

FDR almost died and from what I understand, did not care. He really do be related to Teddy Roosevelt.

Imagine being a crew member on the porter, not knowing you sent a torpedo at the president and randomly seeing 9 16" guns FROM YOUR OWN SIDE turn directly at you

Not only was the Fletcher one of if not the most numerous fleet destoryera of WW2, it is also considered by many to be one of the best fleet destoryers of WW2. At least at the destoryer class, the US didn't just spam ships, they spammed very good ships, as opposed to the "good enough" in some of the other classes, like the earlier production cruisers for instance.

"'Dont shoot, we're Republicans.' You know, cause FDR was a Democrat"🤣🤣🤣 I laughed wayyyy to hard at that.

I still think her greatest achievement was that she went down with no souls on board, protecting her crew to the very last moments.

I found the story believable without needing to do any research because I have seen firsthand the slip ups within the modern military. I laughed throughout this video, great presentation.

15:37 Ok quick explanation about the names. During WW2 the US developed a set of codenames for quick identification of Japanese planes. Bombers were given Female names (D3A "Val", B5N "Kate", G4M "Betty", etc) while Fighters were given Male names (Ki-43 "Oscar", Ki-84 "Frank", Ki-44 "Tojo", etc)

Yes, the best history channel uploaded a new video.

My husband’s grandfather was aboard the USS Iowa for this event. Hubs has talked about his pap seeing the torpedo as they were turning. Such a wild time to be alive!

Awesome channel, just found you. This needs to be a movie. You did leave one "reportedly" funny story out. During the pardon process, FDR called the USS Porter's Captain (Lt Commander Walter) into his office for a face to face meeting. FDR told Walter he wanted to know ONE thing. FDR then joking asked him "HOW DID YOU MISS A LARGE BATTLESHIP!".