Ships
- USS Abner Read (DD-526) Captain, 1 October 1944 – 1 November 1944
Arthur F. Purdy, a commander in the United States Navy, took command of the Fletcher-class destroyer Abner Read (DD-526) on 1 October 1944. His time in command lasted one month and ended on the day the ship was lost in Leyte Gulf.
Abner Read was built by Bethlehem Steel at San Francisco. Her keel was laid on 30 October 1941, she was launched on 18 August 1942, and she was commissioned on 5 February 1943 with T. Burrowes as captain. That spring she went north for the Aleutian campaign and took part in the occupation of Attu. In the early hours of 18 August 1943, while she patrolled slowly off Kiska, a mine exploded aft. The blast tore her stern away. Seventy men were killed or missing and forty-seven were wounded. She was towed to Adak and later to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, where she spent months being rebuilt.
Thomas B. Hutchins III relieved Burrowes on 14 October 1943 and commanded the repaired destroyer through the next year in the Southwest Pacific. In April 1944 she supported the Hollandia operation along the Aitape, Humboldt Bay, and Tanahmerah Bay landings, and in May she operated off the Toem, Wakde, and Sarmi coast of New Guinea. By early autumn the ship was preparing for the return to the Philippines.
Purdy assumed command as that move began. In mid-October Abner Read steamed for Leyte Gulf and entered San Pedro Bay on 20 October 1944 while United States troops went ashore on Leyte. Through the rest of the month she patrolled off the beachhead with the covering forces in the gulf.
On the afternoon of 1 November 1944, Abner Read was patrolling the lower gulf with Task Group 77.1 when Japanese aircraft attacked. Antiaircraft fire damaged an approaching dive bomber, but the aircraft's bomb fell down one of the destroyer's stacks and exploded in the after engine room. The plane struck the deck and set the after part of the ship on fire. The fire mains lost pressure, and a heavy internal explosion followed. Abner Read listed to starboard and settled by the stern. Around 1415 she rolled onto her starboard side and sank stern first, a little more than half an hour after the hit. Nearby destroyers took off the survivors. Twenty-two of her crew were lost. Purdy's command, dated from 1 October, ended with the ship that day. Over her whole wartime service Abner Read received four battle stars.