USS Walter X. Young (DE-715/APD-131) was a ship of the United States Navy, named for Lieutenant Walter X. Young (1918–1942), an officer of the United States Marine Corps who was killed in action during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Originally laid down on 27 May 1944 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan as a , DE-715, Young was reclassified and redesignated as a , APD-131 on 15 July 1944. The ship was launched on 30 September 1944, sponsored by Mrs. John J. McGeeney; and commissioned on 1 May 1945. Namesake Walter Xavier Young was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 22 October 1918. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on 6 January 1941, and following training at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 29 May 1941. After commissioning, Young received training at the U.S. Army Signal Corps School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and was then assigned to the Marine Barracks New River, North Carolina, into 1942. Promoted to First Lieutenant on 6 June 1942 Young was communications officer of the 1st Marine Parachute Battalion, which took part in the initial landings of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomon Islands. During the initial landings on Gavutu, Young singlehandedly assaulted a Japanese-held dugout commanding a portion of the dock on the island, which was a key objective. While successfully penetrating and neutralizing the dugout, Young was wounded by rifle fire, and died later that day. For his actions Young was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously. In February 1944, the United States Navy destroyer escort was named for Young, but its construction was cancelled in March 1944. Service history After conducting shakedown in Guantanamo Bay, Walter X. Young interrupted her voyage to Norfolk, Virginia, when she transported an emergency appendectomy patient from to Guantanamo Bay for medical attention. Upon the completion of this mission of mercy, she arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 10 June. Post-shakedown availability and training exercises preceded her sailing south for Fort Pierce, Florida, for specialized training with Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs). She departed the east coast on 30 July for San Pedro, California; transited the Panama Canal on 3 August, and while en route up the Pacific coast of Mexico, received word of the atomic bomb detonation at Hiroshima on the 6th and, three days later, of a nuclear blast at Nagasaki, and of the Soviet