This 6.4 ounce 3.25 inch long piece of shrapnel was dug out of the starboard side of the torpedo shack of USS BAILEY by Stan Hogshead (Ensign) upon BAILEY made port at Dutch Harbor about four and a half days after the 26 March 1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Delivered by the Imperial Japanese Navy this souvenir of the battle is a piece of a near miss by one of the 8” Japanese shells that rained down around BAILEY during the torpedo run she made that day. A multitude of near misses did substantial damage to her starboard side including warping the plates below the waterline from about frame 60 to 100, punching a hole into the #1 engine room around frame 80 causing flooding and ultimately shutting it down, and spraying the BAILEY amidships with a liberal quantity of shrapnel of all sizes. The number of shell splashes around the BAILEY from the concentrated fire of the Japanese cruisers spawned the metaphors “like rain” and “like a waterfall” from some who witnessed it.

BAILEY got within 9500 yards of the Japanese cruisers before launching her five 21" torpedoes. At point blank range for 8” navel guns one shell penetrated the BAILEY’S starboard side around frame 62 traversed a flat trajectory toward the port side exploding in the Galley (A-108L) just above the Plotting Room (A-206-3C) killing 5 and wounding 6. Of the three DesRon 14 destroyers making the torpedo run, USS BAILEY DD-492, USS COUGHLAN DD-606, and USS MONAGHAN DD-354, BAILEY was the only one to get close enough to launch her torpedoes. To the astonishment of those who saw it, the numerically superior Japanese forces turned away from this attack. A parting 8” shell hit the fantail of BAILEY at such a shallow angle that it only managed to gouge the deck before coming to a rest by Gun Mount #4, members of the topside crew simply rolled the unexploded shell over the side.

In the United States Navel Historical Record The Battle of the Komandorski Islands is seen as the last all gun battle in United States navel history, at almost four hours in length it is also one of the longest. Stan's shrapnel is a a tangible representation of what the ship and crew experienced at Komandorski.