USS Mason DDG 87 / SECNAV John Young Mason & Ensign Newton Henry Mason / Arleigh Burke class Guided Missile Destroyer – US Navy

	s e a f o r c e s – online				Naval Forces Technology, History & Information
Guided Missile Destroyer
DDG 87 - USS Mason
		USS Mason (DDG 87)						US Navy photo
Type, Class:		Guided Missile Destroyer; Arleigh Burke – class / Flight IIA; planned and built as DDG 87;
Builder:		Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, USA
STATUS:		Awarded: December 13, 1996; Laid down: January 20, 2000; Launched: June 23, 2001; Commissioned: April 12, 2003; ACTIVE UNIT/ in commission (Atlantic Fleet)
Homeport:		Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Namesake:		Named after and in honor of John Y. Mason (1799 – 1859) - (16th & 18th SECNAV) and ENS Newton H. Mason (1918 – 1942); > see history, below;
Ship's Motto:		> PROUDLY WE SERVE <
Technical Data: (Measures, Propulsion, Armament, Aviation, etc.)		see: INFO > Guided Missile Destroyer / Arleigh Burke - class.
Pictures, photos & more ...
John Young Mason & Newton Henry Mason
John Y. Mason / 16th & 18th SECNAV			Newton H. Mason (left, back row)
Photo credits: US Navy, US Naval Historical Center
Namesake & History:
USS Mason’s namesakes:
USS MASON DDG 87 is the third ship to bear the name and is the 37th ship of Arleigh Burke Class of Aegis Guided Missile Destroyers. The first ship to bear the name MASON was named for John Young Mason, born April 19, 1799 in Greene County, Virginia.  Both a political leader and diplomat, he was Secretary of the Navy for Presidents John Tyler and James K. Polk. The first MASON (DD 191) was laid down by Newport News shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newport News, Virginia 10 July 1918 and launched 8 March 1919.  The ship’s sponsor was Miss Mary Mason Williams, great-granddaughter of Secretary Mason.  Commissioning was held at Norfolk Navy Yard on 28 February 1920 with Lieutenant Commander Carl F. Holden as the commissioning commanding officer. As a result of the Washington Treaty of 6 February 1922 limiting naval armament, DD 191 was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 3 July 1922.  After World War II broke out in Europe, MASON was recommissioned 4 December 1939.  Under terms of the “Destroyers for Bases” executive agreement between the United States and Great Britain, the MASON became one of 50 ships turned over in exchange for 99 year leases on bases in the western hemisphere.  DD 191 was transferred to the British Royal Navy in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 8 October 1940 and renamed the HMS BROADWATER H-81 the next day. Assigned to the Newfoundland Escort Force in July 1941, the ship patrolled the North Atlantic and guarded convoys against the German submarine “wolfpacks” into the fall of that year.  Early in the morning of 17 October 1941 she attacked a U-boat, one of a pack assaulting an American convoy SC-48 south of Iceland.  Twenty-four hours later she herself fell victim to torpedoes of U-101 and sank the same day. The second ship to bear the name MASON was named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason, born on 24 December 1918 in New York City.  He enlisted as a seaman in the Naval Reserve on 7 November 1940 and was appointed an aviation cadet on 10 February 1941.  He was assigned to Fighting Squadron 3 in September 1941 and died following aerial combat against the Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea, 8 and 9 May 1942.  Ensign Mason was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his skill and courage in battle. The second MASON DE-529 was laid down by the Boston Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts in October 1943 and launched 17 November 1943.  The ship was sponsored by Mrs. David Mason, mother of Ensign Mason and commissioned 20 March 1944.  Lieutenant Commander William Blackford was the commissioning commanding officer. MASON DE-529 served as convoy escort in the Atlantic through the remainder of World War II. MASON DE-529 has the distinction of being the only U.S. Navy destroyer to be manned with a predominantly black enlisted crew.  This was the first time that black Americans were permitted to be trained and serve in ratings other than cooks and stewards.  In late 1943 the Navy announced its plan to place an all black crew with white officers aboard MASON.  One hundred and sixty black Sailors were enrolled in all fields of operational and technical training and manned the ship at commissioning. Although known as “Eleanor’s Folly” for Eleanor Roosevelt’s introduction of the idea for an all black crew, the MASON served with distinction during World War II.   During the worst North Atlantic storm of the century, MASON was serving as escort to a convoy of merchant ships bound for England.   During the storm the convoy was forced to break up and MASON was chosen to escort a section of ships to their destiny.  With land in sight the MASON’s deck split threatening the structural integrity of the ship.  Emergency repairs were conducted and MASON returned immediately to assist the remainder of the convoy. The MASON crew was recommended for commendations from both their captain, Lieutenant Commander Bill Blackford, and the convoy commander, Commander Alfred Lind.  The commendations were never rewarded.  At the end of the war MASON was assigned as a training ship operating from Miami, Florida until being decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1947. On July 26, 1947 President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, officially desegregating the armed forces. Through the efforts of the Mason veterans and the author Mary Pat Kelly, the MASON story has been chronicled in the book “Proudly We Served.”  Their persistence in telling the MASON story paid off in 1994 when President Clinton awarded the long overdue commendation to sixty-seven surviving crewmembers.  In 1998, then Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton made official his decision to name an Arleigh Burke Destroyer the USS MASON DDG 87 to mark the contributions of USS MASON DE 529 Sailors to equality and desegregation in our Navy’s ranks.
John Young Mason (April 18, 1799 – October 3, 1859); 16th Secretary of the Navy (March 26, 1844 – March 10, 1845) and 18th Secretary of the Navy (September 10, 1846 – March 7, 1849); John Young Mason was born in Greensville County, Virginia, on 18 April 1799. After graduation from the University of North Carolina, he studied law and practiced that profession in Virginia from 1819. He married the daughter of a prominent land-owner in 1821 and became a planter himself, as well as continuing as a lawyer. Active in Government affairs, Young served in the Virginia legislature from 1823 to 1827 and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1829-30. Elected to the United States Congress 1830, he served three terms, was an active supporter of most elements of Andrew Jackson's presidency, but was also a staunch advocate of states' rights. He left Congress in 1837 to become a judge on the General Court of Virginia and became a federal judge in 1841. Mason was nominated as Secretary of the Navy by President John Tyler in March 1844, serving to near the end of Tyler's term a year later. This period was marked by intense Congressional pressure for economy, requiring the decommissioning of the Navy's ships of the line and making it difficult to maintain a continuous naval presence on foreign stations. The construction of floating drydocks for several Navy Yards, the simplification of the Navy's ordnance system, an expansion of the Navy's scientific endeavors and the formalization of status of the naval engineers also marked Mason's first term as Secretary. After serving as Attorney General in the new administration of President James K. Polk, Mason returned to the Navy Department in September 1846, thus providing experienced leadership during the Mexican War. His second term was marked by efforts to sustain the Navy's combat forces in the Gulf of Mexico and along the far-distant Pacific coast, the beginning of construction of new steamers and an effort to obtain potential warships thorough the subsidization of civilian mail steamships. The latter was an early, and ultimately unsuccessful, experiment in public-private partnership. John Y. Mason left office at the end of the Polk Presidency and returned to Virginia, where he remained active in public affairs. He became Ambassador to France in 1854 and served in that post until his death in Paris on 3 October 1859. USS Mason (DD-191), 1920-1940, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy John Y. Mason.
ENS Newton Henry Mason (December 24, 1918 – May 1942); Ensign Newton Henry Mason, born on 24 December 1918 in New York City.  He enlisted as a seaman in the Naval Reserve on 7 November 1940 and was appointed an aviation cadet on 10 February 1941.  He was assigned to Fighting Squadron 3 in September 1941 and died following aerial combat against the Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea, 8 and 9 May 1942.  Ensign Mason was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his skill and courage in battle.
USS Mason (DDG 87):
… DDG 87 history wanted …
… and patches …
>> seaforces.org