Crew

The U.S.S. Little DD 803 was commissioned August 19, 1944 and sunk May 3, 1945 after four Kamikaze aircraft registered hits on the destroyer in five minutes while serving in TG 51.5 during radar picket station duty on L-32 day for Okinawa landings. Having only been in service for one-year, three-months and 16 days, the U.S.S. Little DD 803 had very little time to “grow” and “shrink” the total number of crew who actually served aboard her through assignments and transfers.

At the time of sinking, the U.S.S. Little DD 803 crew compliment was 340 consisting of 16 officers and 324 enlisted men. An official press release (May 29, 1945) from the Twelfth Naval District Office of Public Relations, San Francisco, CA states, “Of the 340-man crew, seven are known dead, 29 missing and 63 wounded.”

Of the 340, 31 crew were lost with the Little, 49 were wounded and the remaining 260 were physically unharmed.

Through my research I have come up with 365 crew who served aboard the U.S.S. Little DD 803 at one point in time. Of those 365, I currently have official U.S. Naval documentation on all but 14 of these individuals whom I have noted U.S.S. LITTLE VERIFICATION REQUIRED on their profiles.