Ships
- USS Charles J. Badger (DD-657) Captain from 22 September 1945
David Lombard Harris was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. On 22 September 1945 he became captain of the destroyer Charles J. Badger. Japan had surrendered earlier that month, and the ship he took was already a veteran of the Pacific war.
Charles J. Badger (DD-657) was a Fletcher-class destroyer named for Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger. She was commissioned in July 1943 and spent the next two years with the Pacific Fleet, screening heavier ships, escorting formations, and supporting the amphibious advance toward Japan. Those combat operations were finished by the time Harris assumed command.
As captain he was responsible for the ship, her engineering plant, her weapons, and the officers and sailors still aboard. A lieutenant commander in command of a destroyer was a familiar arrangement in that Navy. In the weeks after the surrender, a commanding officer's days ran to occupation duty in Japanese waters, passages between anchorages, upkeep after two hard years at sea, and the steady release of wartime crews.
Officers of Charles J. Badger in the ship's Pacific service included William Goodwin Cooper, John Henderson Cotten, and John Dandridge Henley Kane. Harris's own tour is fixed by the date he took the deck: 22 September 1945.
His captaincy belonged to the fleet that was standing down. Charles J. Badger remained a working destroyer while the Navy shifted from strikes and landings to occupation duty and the return of ships and men to the United States. Lieutenant Commander David Lombard Harris is remembered in that service as captain of Charles J. Badger from 22 September 1945.