Ships
- USS Robinson (DD-562) Captain, 31 January 1944 – 19 March 1945
Elonzo Bowden Grantham, Jr., was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on 25 January 1907. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis with the Class of 1930 and was commissioned in the Navy. He became a lieutenant on 2 June 1938. Wartime advancement made him a temporary lieutenant commander on 15 June 1942 and a temporary commander on 15 October 1942.
His first destroyer command of the war was the older four-piper Hatfield (DD-231). He served as her commanding officer from 28 December 1942 until 8 November 1943.
On 31 January 1944 he placed the new Fletcher-class destroyer Robinson in commission. Built by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, she shook down out of San Diego, left Seattle on 12 April, and reached Pearl Harbor on 21 April. After further training she sailed on 29 May with Task Force 52, bound for Eniwetok and the Marianas.
At daylight on 15 June, as Marines landed on Saipan, Robinson opened fire. Her first salvo set off a large explosion and an oil fire ashore. She silenced four Japanese batteries that had been shooting at the Marines on the southern beach called Yellow One, and scored a direct hit on a pillbox on nearby Tinian. After dark she screened the battleship Tennessee and, over two hours, fought off five Japanese aircraft.
She stayed with the amphibious forces through the summer and autumn. In July she supported the landings on Tinian, in September the assault on Peleliu, and in October the landings on Leyte, shifting between shore bombardment and screening duty.
On the night of 24–25 October 1944, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a Japanese column of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers advanced through Surigao Strait. Commander Grantham took Robinson into a coordinated destroyer torpedo attack in the darkness. The torpedoes went out on a timed run, caught the column by surprise, and left it exposed to the American battle line. The engagement sank two Japanese battleships and three destroyers, and Robinson drew clear undamaged. For his conduct that night he received the Navy Cross.
He kept Robinson in Philippine waters through the winter. The ship supported the Mindoro landings in December 1944 and the Lingayen Gulf landings in January 1945, escorting convoys and driving off Japanese aircraft between the assaults. On 19 March 1945 he turned the destroyer over to Ray Edward Malpass.
Grantham remained in the Navy and rose to rear admiral. From 24 June 1964 to 16 January 1965 he served on the staff of the Commander in Chief, Pacific, as deputy chief of staff for military assistance logistics and administration, overseeing assistance plans and Pacific Command logistics. That duty brought him the Legion of Merit. He retired as a rear admiral and died in Charleston, South Carolina, on 24 January 1985, at the age of seventy-seven.