A legacy address, answered honestly

The chronology

This address — /Chronology/ConyChronology.htm — was the USS Cony Shipmates association's own chronology page, and live links still point to it. It now carries this tribute's chronology of USS Cony (DD-508, later DDE-508), a Fletcher-class destroyer built by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine — written new from cited public records, not reused from the old site.

24 Dec 1941
Keel laid at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine — Christmas Eve, three weeks after Pearl Harbor.
16 Aug 1942
Launched in the documented Maine mass-launch event — eight ships in one day, including Cony and sister Conway at Bath. The Navy's official history prints 30 August 1942; the conflict is carried, not resolved — see The Builders.
30 Oct 1942
Commissioned at Boston; Lieutenant Commander Harry D. Johnston in command.
27 Jan 1943
Arrived Nouméa, New Caledonia, escorting a troop convoy from Norfolk; patrols between Espiritu Santo and Efate follow.
6 Mar 1943
First action: bombardment of the Vila-Stanmore area.
15 Aug 1943
Flagship for Vice Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson at the Vella Lavella landings.
27 Oct 1943
Treasury Islands: attacked with a sister destroyer by about 25 Japanese bombers; two bomb hits and a near miss — eight killed, ten wounded. Towed to Port Purvis, then Mare Island for complete overhaul. The eight are on the memorial roster.
27 Mar 1944
Returned to action; Bougainville patrols.
Jun–Sep 1944
Screens the Saipan (15 June) and Tinian (24 July) landings; carrier screen for the Peleliu landings, 15–30 September.
24–25 Oct 1944
Battle of Surigao Strait: stationed with the battleline; dueled the Japanese destroyer Asagumo through the night and, with another destroyer and two cruisers, sank her on the morning of 25 October.
Nov–Dec 1944
Ormoc Bay sweeps (nights of 29–30 November and 1–2 December); Mindoro screen.
9 Jan 1945
Lingayen Gulf landings; then Baler Bay and Caballo Island fire support, the Parang bombardment (14–19 April), Davao Gulf patrols, Brunei Bay (9 June), Balikpapan (13 June–2 July), Sarangani Bay (11–13 July).
Sep–Dec 1945
Reached the Yangtze approaches 8 September; Shanghai harbor-entrance control ship until 19 November; Taiwan Strait minesweeping navigation ship; sailed for home 20 December.
18 Jun 1946
Decommissioned into reserve at Charleston (arrived 13 March 1946). Eleven battle stars for World War II service.
26 Mar 1949
Reclassified DDE-508 — escort destroyer specially equipped for antisubmarine warfare.
17 Nov 1949
Recommissioned at Boston Naval Shipyard; Commander J. A. Dodson, Jr., commanding — the ceremony's printed program is preserved on this site.
May–Dec 1951
Round-the-world cruise and Korean War: departed Norfolk 14 May; war zone 18 June–28 October; home via the Suez Canal, arriving 20 December. Two battle stars for Korean service.
1953–57
NATO Operation Mariner (September 1953, exercises with the Royal Navy off Northern Ireland, then a Mediterranean tour); Mediterranean again 1955 and 1957; NATO antisubmarine exercises in the English Channel, September–October 1957.
1959–60
Task Force Alfa, the experimental antisubmarine tactical group, East Coast operations; Quebec City visit, June 1960. DANFS's published narrative ends in 1960.
21 Jul 1961
Served in the NASA recovery force for Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR-4), the second crewed Mercury flight.
30 Jun 1962
Reverted to designation DD-508.
27 Oct 1962
Challenged Soviet submarine B-59 to the surface during the Cuban Missile Crisis quarantine — the centerpiece of this site: 27 October 1962.
23 Mar 1965
Served in the NASA recovery force for Gemini 3 (GT-3), the first crewed Gemini flight.
Aug–Nov 1967
Vietnam deployment: gunfire support 28 August–24 September for 1st Cavalry Division operations in II Corps, then for SEAL units in the Mekong Delta; plane guard for the carrier Oriskany with TG 77.8 on Yankee Station; operated on Ganh Rai Bay 6–7 November (VA ships list).
2 Jul 1969
Decommissioned and stricken.
20 Mar 1970
Sunk as a target off Puerto Rico — as the compiled records carry it; the authoritative disposition record is an open item on this site's list.

A crew account, not a record

A crew chronology kept by a Cony veteran places the ship in the April 1961 Bay of Pigs operation. No deck log, official history, or primary document reached names Cony there, so it does not stand as an entry in the chronology above — it is carried only as that veteran's account, labeled for what it is.

The people behind these dates are this site's real subject — the builders, the crews, the named, and the shipmates. Specifications and the documented evidence record are on The Ship.

DANFS (the Navy's official ship history) throughout, except as marked — the launch-date conflict is printed, not resolved (see The Builders); keel date per the 1949 recommissioning program corroborated by the Fletcher-class construction list; the first commanding officer prints as Johnston per wartime ONI combat narratives and the 1944 Navy Register (DANFS spells the name "Johnson"); NASA recovery-force service per the NASA History Office's recovery-ships directory; 30 June 1962 designation reversion consistent across derivative lists; 1967 detail per an NHHC-photograph-anchored secondary account, corroborated for Ganh Rai Bay by the VA ships list; the decommissioning prints as a date only — compiled records conflict on the place; the 1970 disposition per compiled records.