USS Purdy (DD-734) was named for Lieutenant Commander Frederick Warren Purdy, who was executive officer of the destroyer Strong when she was sunk on the night of 4 and 5 July 1943 and who was lost while searching for an injured man. He was awarded the Silver Star. The ship was built by Bath Iron Works, launched on 7 May 1944 and commissioned on 18 July 1944, sponsored by his widow.
After shakedown off Bermuda and operations in the Caribbean she sailed from Trinidad on 7 February 1945 for San Diego and reached Leyte on 17 March to rehearse the Okinawa landings. She arrived off Okinawa on 1 April and took a radar picket station. On 6 April she fought fires on the damaged destroyer Mullany and took her injured survivors back to Kerama Retto.
On 12 April 1945, about 60 miles off Okinawa with Cassin Young, she was attacked by about 30 aircraft. With carrier fighters she helped turn most away. Two broke through and hit Cassin Young. A third, closing on Purdy, was shot down, but its momentum carried it into the ship and its bomb broke loose, pierced her plating and exploded. Fifteen were killed, 25 seriously wounded, and the damage was extensive. She reached Kerama Retto, was repaired there and at Guam, and arrived at San Francisco on 28 May. She served in Japanese waters from October 1945.
Sources: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) as reproduced on Wikipedia, NavSource Online (commanding officer list), and Wikimedia Commons (photograph record).