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Tommy Burgdorf (Birddog), FC2
to remember
Middleton, Rex Benjamin, SOG1.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Seattle, WA
Casualty Date Oct 07, 1951
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Korea, North
Conflict Korean War
Location of Interment Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park - Seattle, Washington
Other Memories World War II North Atlantic operations[edit]
Strickland sailed for Bermuda on her shakedown cruise and thence to Norfolk, Virginia. She stood out of that port on 24 March in the screen of convoy UGS-37, consisting of 60 merchant ships and six LSTs, en route to Bizerte. The voyage to Gibraltar was uneventful; but, once the Allied ships entered the Mediterranean, they were trailed by German planes. The Luftwaffe struck late in the evening of 11 April when the convoy was off Cape Bengut, Algeria, with a force of approximately 25 Dornier 217s and Junker 88s making bombing and torpedo runs. Strickland, on the starboard flank of the convoy, splashed a Junker that was making a strafing run on her. During the action, USS Holder was torpedoed and badly damaged. The ship's return trip to the United States was uneventful, and she arrived at New York on 11 May. Strickland continued on the Norfolk-to-Bizerte run for five months and, in October, shifted to the North Atlantic lanes, escorting tankers and troop transports to England and France. She continued these runs until mid-May 1945 when she returned to New York to be refitted for duty in the Pacific. She stood out of New York on 20 June for a 10-day training period at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and onward routing via the Panama Canal to Hawaii. Transfer to the Pacific Fleet[edit]
Strickland arrived at Pearl Harbor on 25 July and was conducting training exercises when Japan capitulated. She escorted an aircraft carrier to Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, on 29 August, and accompanied three merchant ships from there to Japan, arriving in Tokyo Bay on 2 October. She sailed from there to Guam and, until January 1946, visited Iwo Jima, Truk, and Okinawa. She returned to San Diego, California, on 25 January 1946 and was routed to the East Coast for inactivation. Strickland arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 11 February and moved down to Charleston, South Carolina, the following month. She remained at Charleston from 10 March to 5 December when she was towed to Green Cove Springs, Florida. The destroyer was decommissioned on 15 June and placed in reserve with the Atlantic Fleet.
