James Daniel Boyd

Rank: Electrician’s Mate Third Class, U.S. Navy

Serial: 08266103

Ship: USS Ross DD-563

Entered service from: New Jersey

Died: October 19, 1944

Memorial: Harleigh Cemetery, Camden, NJ

Awards: Purple Heart

Electrician’s Mate Third Class James Daniel Boyd was born on July 25, 1923 to Bertha and William G. Boyd Jr. He was their only child. As early as 1922 his parents lived at 713 Clinton Street in South Camden and were still there in 1940. Not long after the census was taken, William G. Boyd Jr. and family moved to Maryland, eventually taking up residence at 1028 Lerew Way in Baltimore.

James Daniel Boyd entered the United States Navy on March 18, 1943. After basic training he was assigned to the destroyer USS Ross DD-563. USS Ross (DD-563) was a U.S. Navy Fletcher-class destroyer named for Captain David Ross, a former Continental Navy lieutenant. The Ross is the only ship in U.S. naval history to survive two underwater mine explosions.

Attached to the carrier support group for the invasion of Saipan, Ross arrived on station in the operating area to the east of the island on June 14, 1944. Through the landings and until June 19, she remained in that area providing screening and plane guard services for the carriers.

On October 19, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, mines exploded aboard the Ross. Casualties were three killed, 20 missing, and nine injured. Electrician’s Mate James Daniel Boyd, Machinist’s Mate First Class Stanley Irvin Brown, and Machinist’s Mate Engineman Third Class A.R. Dyke were the three killed in action.

William G. Boyd Jr., who had moved to Somerdale, New Jersey by 1956, applied for a flat granite marker to memorialize his son to be placed at Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey.