Commander Grady

Lieutenant Commander Grady commanded the USS Dakota's starboard secondary armament at the outbreak of the Great War. He took part in the U.S. Navy operation that captured the Sandwich Islands from the British and sailed on the Dakota as part of fleet patrols to protect the islands from counter-attack.

In 1915, an enemy aeroplane was spotted over Pearl Harbor and battles stations were sounded among the moored warships. As the Dakota set sail, Grady checked the status of each of his guns, including the starboard bow five-inch gun commanded by CPO Hiram Kidde. He initially didn't know whose aeroplane it was but came back later to tell the gun crew it was Japanese. He also told them that a force of cruisers and destroyers had been spotted by their own aeroplane scouts and that the American force was closing to attack. It turned out that it was a trap. The aeroplane had lured the American fleet into the path of a number of hidden submersibles, one of which fired a torpedo that hit the Dakota blowing a large hole in the hull at the waterline. Grady told his gun crews that the compartmentalizing was holding up, the engines were safe and that they were slowly returning to Pearl Harbor probably for drydock repairs.