Two of the last remaining World War II-era U.S. Fletcher-class destroyers, USS Kidd and USS The Sullivans, are receiving essential preservation efforts after years on the mud as museum ships.
USS Kidd has recently gone into dry dock, though the ship was delayed months for lack of funding, while USS The Sullivans, in New York, has approved repairs.
The Fletcher-class destroyers were of supreme importance for the U.S. during WWII when 175 vessels were built and commissioned between 1942 and 1944.
To this day, only three are preserved in the United States: Kidd is the only one of these ships in its original WWII wartime configuration; another sister is preserved in Greece.
Kidd and The Sullivans both need badly to be repaired. The Sullivans sank at her berth in Buffalo, New York, in April 2022 with much effort required to right the ship as well as make temporary repairs.
Permanent repairs are required so she to not sink early. USS Kidd is customarily shown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana- unless repairs had been delayed to the point where the vessel had nearly sunk.
In February 1943, USS Kidd was launched from Federal Shipbuilding & Dry-dock Company in New Jersey as a Fletcher-class destroyer named for Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd, Sr., who was killed aboard USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack.
Kidd earned eight battle stars during WWII and four more for service in Korea. Decommissioned in 1964, she was preserved as a museum ship in Baton Rouge in 1982.
The unique display on the Mississippi River, where Kidd alternates between being afloat and sitting on dry dock blocks, has caused significant hull damage over 40 years.
Kidd had been sitting in Baton Rouge since a drought caused delays in 2023. In April, she was moved to ThomaSea shipyard in Houma, Louisiana. The heavy project, at an $11 million price tag, will include significant hull repairs; repainting; installation of a new sewage system; and other repairs to the cradle, among many other works.
Kidd is scheduled to leave the dry dock in February, but may not be back in Baton Rouge until May 2025, contingent on the amount of water in place, officials say.
Dedicated USS The Sullivans, named for the five Sullivan brothers who died aboard USS Juneau in November 1942, was commissioned in April 1943 and decommissioned in 1965.
She has been on display in Buffalo since 1977. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she will put $10 million in state money toward restoring The Sullivans and the submarine USS Croaker; additional local, state, and federal funding brings the total to nearly $21 million.
After undergoing scheduled repair in September of 2025, both vessels should go back to Buffalo, and their next destination will be spring 2026.
Some of the restoration works emphasize other mega-projects, which include the battleships USS Texas and USS New Jersey as well as Liberty ship John W. Brown; such mega-restoration projects indicate that naval history is in a class all its own.