Ships
- USS Wilson (DD-408) Captain, 25 May 1942 – 10 October 1943
- USS Morrison (DD-560) Captain from 18 December 1943
Walter H. Price was born on 21 December 1903 in Shelbyville, Indiana. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1927 and made his career in the Navy. He retired as a rear admiral, later lived in Coronado, California, and died on 2 May 1994.
On 25 May 1942, as a lieutenant commander, he took command of the Benham-class destroyer Wilson (DD-408). He relieved Russell Groesbeck Sturges, who had commanded her since commissioning in July 1939. That July Wilson went south with a task group built around the carrier Wasp. In the opening days of August she covered the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, firing on Japanese positions ashore and on aircraft over the beachhead.
The night of 8–9 August brought the Battle of Savo Island, and the morning left three American cruisers lost or dying. Wilson took oil-soaked survivors from Vincennes and Quincy out of the water, then stood by the burning Astoria. Price laid his ship alongside the cruiser’s starboard bow. Wilson pumped water onto the fires, and a working party went aboard to help the men still trying to save her. About 211 of Astoria’s officers and men came across to the destroyer. The cruiser went down around noon.
For the rest of his tour Price kept Wilson on escort and patrol work through the Solomons. She drove off air and surface attacks and destroyed several enemy barges. In the summer of 1943 she joined the occupations of Rendova and New Georgia and bombarded the Japanese base at Munda while troops took that airfield. He carried the ship through those missions undamaged. The Legion of Merit recognized his command in the Solomons from June 1942 into the first days of October 1943. He turned Wilson over on 10 October 1943 to Charles Kenney Duncan. Colin Jack MacKenzie and Willis L. Roberts commanded her later in the war.
By the time he commissioned his next ship he was a commander. On 18 December 1943 he placed the new Fletcher-class destroyer Morrison (DD-560) in commission at Seattle. She fitted out on Puget Sound, shook down off San Diego, and sailed for Pearl Harbor late in February 1944. Screening fast carriers, she was at sea off New Guinea when troops landed at Hollandia in April. In June she joined the escort carriers east of Saipan. On 16 June a sound contact showed at about 800 yards, and she dropped a pattern of eight depth charges. The search afterward found an empty sea. Her guns then engaged Japanese dive bombers aimed at the carriers. On 19 June, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, she helped the formation break up a raid by twin-engine bombers, and the ships in company came through undamaged. After dark she joined the hunt for pilots and aircrew down in the water. She stayed off the Marianas into August, then screened carriers for the seizure of Guam and for strikes on Palau, the Philippines, and Formosa.
On 24 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the light carrier Princeton was on fire after an air attack. Price took the damaged Morrison alongside and held her there. His men fought the carrier’s fires and brought survivors off, while he handled the destroyer against a strong Japanese air attack. Three heavy explosions tore through Princeton with Morrison still alongside. He received the Silver Star for the rescue. His command of Morrison ended on 10 November 1944.
In the spring of 1945, by then a captain, he led Destroyer Division 110 off Okinawa. From 25 March to 20 June he also served as screen commander for several groups and as a task group commander for fire-support ships and vessels hunting small craft. Suicide planes and boats, submarines, and shore batteries kept the force under nearly continuous attack. Ships under his direction destroyed at least eight Japanese aircraft and helped shoot down others, kept up gunfire for the troops ashore, and screened major units of the fleet. A Gold Star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit marked that duty.