Ships
- USS Bryant (DD-665) Captain from 4 December 1943
Paul Laverne High was born in Huntington, West Virginia, on 24 September 1904. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1927 and made his career in the United States Navy. In the wartime record of his best-known ship he is carried as P. L. High.
On 4 December 1943 he became captain of the new Fletcher-class destroyer USS Bryant (DD-665) at her commissioning at the Charleston Navy Yard. He held the rank of commander. The ship honored Rear Admiral Samuel W. Bryant. After fitting out, Bryant ran a shakedown of about a month in waters near Bermuda, returned to Charleston late in February 1944 for a short yard period, and then steamed to the Boston Navy Yard.
Bryant entered the Pacific on 28 March 1944. That summer High took her into the Marianas. She supported the seizure of Saipan and Tinian from the middle of June into early August, and on 19 and 20 June she fought in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, when American carrier planes turned back the Japanese fleet sent to relieve those islands.
In September 1944 Bryant took part in the capture of the southern Palau Islands and Ulithi, work that included the assault on Peleliu. From mid-October she covered minesweeping and the landings on Dinagat and Leyte. On 22 December a Japanese suicide aircraft hit the water about twenty-five yards off the port side. The blast left the ship lightly damaged and wounded one man.
The night action of 24 and 25 October 1944, the Battle of Surigao Strait, defined his command. Bryant went in with the destroyers Robinson and Halford against a Japanese column of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. High conned the ship through heavy gunfire, launched torpedoes in a coordinated attack, and brought Bryant clear with her hull intact. For that leadership he received the Navy Cross.
He was still in command when the Lingayen Gulf landings opened in January 1945, and he left Bryant on 28 January 1945. On 20 March 1945 he was advanced to temporary captain. He later rose to rear admiral and retired in 1964. Paul Laverne High died in Richmond, Virginia, on 22 September 1986.