Ships
- USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570) Captain, 24 November 1942 – 1 June 1944
Luther Kendrick Reynolds was born in Mississippi on 21 August 1905. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis with the class of 1926 and served as a regular officer of the fleet in the years before the Pacific war. From 15 February 1941 until 21 September 1942 he commanded the destroyer Barry (DD-248).
On 24 November 1942 he became the first commanding officer of the new destroyer Charles Ausburne (DD-570), taking her on the day she was commissioned at Orange, Texas. He remained her captain until 1 June 1944. Her first long voyage came the following spring. Between 1 April and 8 May 1943 she escorted a convoy from New York to Casablanca and brought another convoy home. At Boston on 11 May she joined Destroyer Squadron 23 as the squadron was activated, and she was assigned as flagship of Destroyer Division 45.
Charles Ausburne reached Nouméa, New Caledonia, on 28 June 1943. Through the summer she patrolled and escorted shipping in support of the fighting on Guadalcanal, guarding convoys to that island and between Efate and Espiritu Santo. From 27 August she worked from Port Purvis in the Solomons with a striking force sent against the Tokyo Express, the Japanese destroyer runs moving troops through the islands. On the night of 27–28 September her guns sank two barges off Vella Lavella. Early in October she returned to Espiritu Santo for supplies and training.
On 23 October 1943 Captain Arleigh A. Burke, who commanded Destroyer Squadron 23, made Charles Ausburne his flagship. Reynolds remained the ship's commanding officer. On the night of 1–2 November the squadron fought in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, off Bougainville, while American troops were landing on the island. Reynolds took Charles Ausburne into the night surface action. The Japanese attempt to strike the beachhead was turned back, and the Japanese ships lost in the battle were the work of the task force. For his leadership that night he received the Navy Cross.
On the night of 24–25 November 1943, five destroyers of the squadron, Charles Ausburne among them, fought the Battle of Cape St. George. They sank Japanese destroyers with torpedoes and gunfire, damaged others, and came out of the action with no loss and no damage to the American ships. The ships destroyed that night were credited to the five destroyers acting together. Reynolds received a Gold Star, marking a second Navy Cross, for the way he fought Charles Ausburne in that engagement.
On 30 January 1944, in Purvis Bay, Rear Admiral Aaron S. Merrill presented awards to Reynolds aboard Charles Ausburne and congratulated him. Reynolds kept command through the rest of the squadron's operations in the Solomons. He was still the ship's captain on 24 May 1944, when the squadron's commanding officers gathered with Burke at Purvis Bay. His tour ended on 1 June 1944, a year and a half after he had commissioned the ship.
That autumn he served as screen commander for a group of escort carriers during the landings on Leyte, from 17 to 24 October 1944, and during the Battle off Samar on 25 October. For that duty he received the Legion of Merit with Combat V. He remained in the Navy after the war and retired as a rear admiral. Reynolds died on 30 March 1996.