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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Laid down | 18 October 1943 |
| Launched | 18 December 1943 |
| Commissioned | 7 March 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 24 May 1960 |
| Stricken | 1 August 1972 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 4 March 1974 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 306 ft 0 in (93 m) |
| Beam | 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m) |
| Draft | 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 24 knots (44 km/h) |
| Range | 4,940 nautical miles (9,150 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) |
| Complement | 15 officers, 198 men |
| Armament |
|
USSJack W. Wilke (DE-800) was aBuckley-classdestroyer escort of theUnited States Navy.
Jack Winton Wilke was born on 13 June 1919 inCovina, California. He enlisted in theUnited States Naval Reserve on 13 January 1941. After undergoing flight training, he was commissionedEnsign on 1 November 1941. Wilke was first assigned to a patrol squadron, but later reported toTorpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) on boardUSS Hornet in the Pacific.
In theBattle of Midway, 4 and 5 June 1942, he joined his squadron in attacking theImperial Japanese Navy invasion force without fighter cover. All the planes and all the flyers but one, Ens.George H. Gay, of the squadron were lost; but their attack had diverted Japanese fighters from dive bombing attacks which might otherwise have prevented the eventual U.S. Navy victory. He was posthumously awarded theNavy Cross.
Jack W. Wilke waslaunched byConsolidated Steel Corp.,Orange, Texas, 18 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Joe H. Wilke, mother of Ens. Wilke; andcommissioned 7 March 1944.
After ashakedown to theWest Indies andantisubmarine warfare (ASW) training atBermuda,Jack W. Wilke spent six months onAtlanticconvoy escort duty. The escort covered several convoys from American ports to theMediterranean in the summer of 1944, making stops atOran,Algeria;Bizerte,Tunis;Palermo,Sicily; andNaples,Italy. Later in the year, the warship escorted a convoy directly toCherbourg,France. That last convoy escort mission was particularly nerve-racking owing to the late warGermanU-boat offensive inBritish waters. Following intelligence indications that next generation U-boats were planning to return to the western Atlantic,Wilke operated with ahunter-killer group in theNewfoundland–Nova Scotia area from December 1944 to May 1945. Upon thesurrender of Germany, she moved toNorfolk to serve as a weather reporting and air-sea rescue vessel.
Jack W. Wilke sailed 4 June 1945 forMiami and operated as asonar training ship there until 18 July. The warship then shifted toPhiladelphia for an overhaul (and the installation of more anti-aircraft guns and improved sonar gear) in preparation for operations in thePacific. With that mission cancelled by the end of the war in August 1945, the escort sailed toPort Everglades, Florida for three weeks of experimental ASW exercises. In September, she underwent a three-month overhaul atNew York Navy Yard in preparation for her new role as an experimental antisubmarine ship.Jack W. Wilke sailed back to Florida on 7 January 1946 to commence operations out ofKey West. During the years that followed, she carried out experiments in both tactics and sound equipment off Key West and during occasional cruises in the West Indies.
The ship's schedule of experimental operations was interrupted on New Year's Day 1959 by the triumph ofFidel Castro's forces inCuba; andJack W. Wilke steamed toHavana with other ships to help stabilize the situation and to protect American lives and property. During the remainder of the year, she operated off Key West and Norfolk on training operations, and took part in a special good-will cruise toPanama in October during a Caribbean training period.
Returning to Key West, the ship decommissioned 24 May 1960, and entered theAtlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia. The old escort was struck from theNavy list on 1 August 1972 and later sold for scrap to Union Metals & Alloys Corp.,New York, on 4 March 1974.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
