DARBY DE 218

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Buckley Class Destroyer Escort Keel Laid 22 February 1943 - Launched 29 May 1943 USS DARBY DE-218 Commissioned 15 November 1943 - Decommissioned 28 April 1947 Recommissioned 24 October 1950 Decommissioned, placed "In Service, In Reserve", 23 February 1959 October 1961 to 1 August 1962: Activated for the Berlin Crisis, returned to NRT duties at Baltimore Placed "Out of Service" at Baltimore, MD 23 September 1968 Struck from Naval Register 23 September 1968 Sunk as target 24 May 1970 off Vieques Island, Puerto Rico

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USS Darby DE-218 Covers Page 1    (1947-1962)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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Post Office Established 22 November 1943 - Disestablished 21 February 1947

 

Locy Type 2z

1947-01-13

Ship used only type the Type 2z device during 1st commissioning.

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Post Office Reestablished 29 November 1950 - Disestablished 1 July 1958

 

Locy Type FDPS 2 (B)

1950-12-07

First Day of Postal Service, cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson.

 

Locy Type 2 (B)

1951-01-14

Note:

 

Locy Type 9efu

1951-01-14

The cancel was applied to the reverse of the cover.

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Post Office Reestablished 1962 - Disestablished 1962

 

Locy Type 2(n) (Killers not showing)

1962-06-12

Note:

 

Other Information

USS DARBY earned the Navy Expeditionary Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 2 Battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal w/ 1 star and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Named in Honor of Ensign Marshall Eugene Darby, USN (10 November 1918 - 7 December 1941) who was killed in the Pearl Harbor attack while serving on USS Oklahoma BB-37.

The ships sponsor was Mrs. Marshall E. Darby, Ensign Darby's mother.

 

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If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

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