MUSTER ROLL OF THE CREW
The following pages show the muster roll of the crew of the USS Laffey (DD 724) on the day of its commissioning,
February 8, 1944 in Boston, Massachusetts. The men listed are the original plank owners.
The quality of the reproduced records is not the best for a couple of reasons, among which are the questionable quality
of the micro film provided by the National Archives, the questionable micro film equipment used in the Portland, Oregon
library, and finally, the questionable editing abilities of the webmaster. Therefore, I have chosen to type the names on the
muster below the actual sheets themselves.
These sheets bring back a few memories. Obviously, many of the names are familiar to me, even though I did not know the individuals
that well. Some lost their lives on April 16, 1945. Some were transferred to other duty stations before we returned to Seattle for repairs.
Many have passed on since. The sheets themselves - even without names on them - remind me of seeing the yeomen in their cramped quarters
typing official correspondence and log sheets.
It is interesting to note that the total enlisted compliment of our ship at commissioning was 317. The breakdown was as follows:
S2c 79
S1c 79
F2c 2
F1c 46
Rated 99
Chiefs 12
Of the enlisted men lost in action, 21 out of 29 casualties were from the original commissioning crew. The remaining 8 casualties transferred on to the
ship some time after commissioning and our departure from Pearl Harbor in 1944..