_in_San_Francisco_Bay%2c_in_late_1943.jpg) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSWhitehurst |
| Namesake | Henry Purefoy Whitehurst, Jr. |
| Builder | Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation,San Francisco,California |
| Laid down | 21 March 1943 |
| Launched | 5 September 1943 |
| Commissioned | 19 November 1943 |
| Decommissioned | 27 November 1946 |
| Recommissioned | 1 September 1950 |
| Decommissioned | 6 December 1958 |
| Recommissioned | 2 October 1961 |
| Decommissioned | 1 August 1962 |
| Stricken | 12 July 1969 |
| Honors and awards |
|
| Fate | Sunk as a target byTrigger (SS-564) on 28 April 1971 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Buckley-classdestroyer escort |
| Displacement |
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| Length | 306 ft (93 m) |
| Beam | 37 ft (11 m) |
| Draft |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 23knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) |
| Range |
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| Complement | 15 officers, 198 men |
| Armament |
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USSWhitehurst (DE-634), aBuckley-classdestroyer escort of theUnited States Navy, was named in honor of Ensign Henry Purefoy Whitehurst, Jr., a crew member of theAstoria (CA-34) who was killed during theBattle of Savo Island in August 1942.
Whitehurst (DE-634) was laid down on 21 March 1943 atSan Francisco, California, by theBethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 5 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs Robie S. Whitehurst, mother of Ensign Whitehurst and commissioned on 19 November 1943.
Followingshakedown off the west coast,Whitehurst proceeded to Hawaii, arriving atPearl Harbor on 4 February 1944. Underway for the Solomons on the 7th, she sailed viaMajuro andFunafuti withJames E. Craig (DE-201) andSC-502, escorting SSGeorge Ross, SSGeorge Constantine and SSRobert Lucas, arriving on 23 February atEspiritu Santo in theNew Hebrides.
After shifting toNouméa, New Caledonia, and back to Espiritu Santo,Whitehurst joinedOsterhaus (DE-164) andAcree (DE-167) on 22 March to escort oilersKankakee (AO-39),Escambia (AO-80), andAtascosa (AO-66).Whitehurst andAtascosa were detached from that task unit on 26 March to proceed independently to a rendezvous with other task forces operating in the area. WhileAtascosa refueled ships from Destroyer Squadron 47, an enemy aircraft appeared, all ships opened fire but no hits were observed andWhitehurst returned to Espiritu Santo.
After escortingPresident Monroe (AP-104) to Milne Bay, New Guinea,Whitehurst remained in New Guinea waters for escort duties until 17 May. She then participated in the amphibious operation againstWakde Island, screening the amphibious ships.Whitehurst, with Task Unit (TU) 72.2.9, later escorted echelon S-4 of the invasion force toHumboldt Bay. The destroyer escort subsequently joinedWilkes (DD-441),Nicholson (DD-442), andSwanson (DD-443), to screen echelon H-2 as it steamed toward Bosnic, Biak, in theSchouten Islands, for the landings there.
Arriving offBiak on 28 May,Whitehurst took up a patrol station off the western entrance to the channel between Owi Island and Biak. While there, she received an urgent message fromLCI-34 which was under fire by Japanese shore batteries.Whitehurst provided counter-battery fire and was herself targeted but all rounds missed and she was relieved byStockton (DD-646) andSwanson.Whitehurst then escortedLCT-260 while she evacuated casualties from the beachhead and later screened echelon H-2 as it retired from Biak to Humboldt Bay.
Whitehurst carried out escort duties and trained through the summer of 1944. She was tasked with theanti-submarine andanti-aircraft screen of TU 77.7.1, a group of fleet tankers supplying the7th Fleet.
On 29 October,Whitehurst received word that, the previous day,Eversole (DE-404) had been torpedoed and sunk byI-45. WhileBull (DE-693) picked up survivors,Whitehurst detected a submerged submarine probablyI-45 on her sonar, about 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) from the site ofEversole′s sinking. After making three unsuccessfulHedgehog attacks, the submarine tried to escape by diving to a depth of 225 feet (69 m). At 06:48,Whitehurst conducted a fourth Hedgehog attack, which resulted in five or six small explosions, followed by a large underwater explosion that disabled her sonar.Whitehurst resumed her search at 07:20 and noted a large amount of oil, wood and other debris, some of which hermotorwhaleboat recovered at10°10′N127°28′E / 10.167°N 127.467°E /10.167; 127.467 (I-45), and headed back to Kossol Roads in thePalaus with TU 77.7.1.
A month later, while escorting a 12-ship convoy from Leyte to New Guinea,Whitehurst came under attack by two Japanese"Lily" medium bombers. One dropped a bomb that fell clear of the ships, the second started a glide bombing attack, butWhitehurst claimed it shot down.
After arriving with the convoy at New Guinea on 25 November,Whitehurst spent the remainder of 1944 and the first few months of 1945 in escort operations between New Guinea and the Philippines.
When thelandings on Okinawa commenced on 1 April 1945,Whitehurst was part ofTask Force 54 (TF 54), screening vessels protecting the transports and cargo vessels. On 6 April, while on patrol station offKerama Retto, she drove off an enemy aircraft that had attacked the cargo vessel SSPierre. Three days later, the escort vessel was relieved of her escort duties off Kerama Retto to operate off the southwest coast of Okinawa.
On the 12th, a low-flying enemy aircraft closed but was driven off. At 1430, four"Val"dive-bombers approached from the south, one detached itself from the group and headed forWhitehurst and commenced a steep dive, two others also attacked, one from the starboard beam and the other from astern, this aircraft was claimed shot down. The original attacker crashed into the ship's forward superstructure on the port side of thepilothouse, penetrating bulkheads and starting fires on the bridge, while the aircraft's bomb went through the ship and exploded some 50 feet off her starboard bow.
AsWhitehurst circled, out of control, the minesweeperVigilance (AM-324), approached from a nearby sector to render assistance. By the timeVigilance had caught up withWhitehurst, her crew had put out the most serious fires, but the minesweeper proved invaluable in aiding the wounded and 21 of 23 wounded transferred toVigilance were saved. 42 of her crew of 213 died in the attack and she moved to Kerama Retto for temporary repairs and when seaworthy reached Pearl Harbor on 10 May for repairs and alterations.
Whitehurst departed Pearl Harbor on 25 July 1945, for the Philippine Islands. Soon after she reached Luzon,Japan surrendered. The ship supplied the city ofManila with power from August through October 1945. She was scheduled to depart Manila on 1 November, bound forGuam but atyphoon in the vicinity resulted in a two-day delay.Whitehurst reached Guam on the afternoon of 7 November.
Operating as a unit of Escort Division 40,Whitehurst supplied electrical power to the dredgeYM-25 into 1946. Returning to the continental United States in April 1946,Whitehurst was decommissioned on 27 November 1946 and placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet atGreen Cove Springs, Florida, in January 1947.
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Reactivated in the summer of 1950 as a result of the outbreak ofwar in Korea,Whitehurst was recommissioned on 1 September 1950 and sailed for theFar East. The destroyer escort earned three battle stars for her activities during the Korean War between 25 February and 19 September 1951.
On 3 August 1952,[1]Whitehurst collided with thesubmarineUSS Bugara (SS-331) duringantisubmarine warfare exercises south ofBarbers Point,Oahu,Hawaii.[2] After repairs, she returned to the Far East, where she remained until 1955, when she returned to Pearl Harbor viaMidway. After working locally out of Pearl Harbor for a year, she operated between Hawaii and Guam into 1956. Early in that year, she performed surveillance duties among the islands and atolls assigned theTrust Territory of the Pacific Islands, performed search and rescue missions in the Marianas and Carolines, stopping at islands to provide medical care and record population changes.
Departing Guam on 22 February forYokosuka, Japan, the ship sailed via the northern Marianas, the Bonins and Volcano Islands. She spent two weeks in Japanese waters before returning to Guam on 17 March. Returning to the Central Carolines for patrol duties in early April 1956,Whitehurst stood by a damaged seaplane at the island ofLamotrek for two weeks before returning to Guam on 14 April, en route to Pearl Harbor.
After a period of local operations out of Pearl Harbor,Whitehurst headed back to the Far East and touched at Guam,Formosa,Hong Kong, andSasebo, Japan, before representing the United States Navy at the graduation ceremonies of theRepublic of Korea Naval Academy on 10 April. She returned to Sasebo before shifting to Yokosuka en route to Midway and Hawaii.
Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 30 April 1957,Whitehurst underwent four weeks of upkeep and repairs before beginning six weeks of duty with20th Century Fox during the filming of the World War II adventure filmThe Enemy Below. During that time, she portrayed the fictional destroyer escort "USSHaynes (DE-181)".
Upon completion of filming,Whitehurst operated offOahu until September, when she was ordered to Seattle, Washington, for duty as a training ship with the13th Naval District making an extended cruise toGuaymas,Mexico, in November 1957. After an overhaul from February to April 1958,Whitehurst returned to training duties, becoming a Group II ASW reserve ship in July. On 6 December 1958, she was transferred to the Naval Reserve and placed in an "in service" status as a unit of theSelected Reserve ASW Force.
During the 1960s,Whitehurst cruised one weekend per month and made one two-week cruise per year. In 1961, she was placed second in a battle efficiency competition among the west coast Group II Naval Reserve destroyer escorts.
Commissioned on 2 October 1961 for duty with the Pacific Fleet,Whitehurst operated with the fleet after being "called to the colors" as a result of theBerlin Crisis that autumn, she departed Seattle on the 4th, bound for her new homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
After a period of training in the Hawaiian area,Whitehurst departed Pearl Harbor on 10 February 1962 for deployment to the Western Pacific. She operated with the 7th Fleet out ofSubic Bay, Philippines, and made a goodwill visit toSapporo, Japan. The ship also operated in the South China Sea and theGulf of Siam.
Returning to the United States via Hawaii,Whitehurst arrived at Seattle withCharles E. Brannon (DE-446) on 17 July 1962. Subsequently, transferred back to the Naval Reserve on 1 August 1962 and placed in Group II in-service status as a Naval Reserve training ship,Whitehurst resumed operations out of Seattle. During 1963, the ship received two major changes in her configuration when her40-mm guns and ship-to-shore power reels that enabled her to function as afloating power station, were removed.
In subsequent years,Whitehurst visitedSan Diego, California; Bellingham, Port Angeles,Everett, Washington; andEsquimalt, British Columbia. On 17 January 1965 while operating in theStrait of Juan de Fuca, steaming in fog off the Vancouver narrows,Whitehurst collided with theNorwegian freighter SSHoyanger. Both ships then ran aground in shallow water. The destroyer escort suffered a five-foot gash in her stern above the waterline while the freighter had three feet of scraped bow plates. The following day, both ships were pulled off by tugs.
Whitehurst operated locally out of Seattle and ranged to San Diego and San Francisco into 1969. The ship transported astronaut CommanderRichard F. Gordon, Jr. and his family from Seattle to his home town of Bremerton on 18 November before she returned to her home port.
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Whitehurst's home port was shifted toPortland, Oregon, from Seattle. The ship she replaced,McGinty (DE-365), was being deactivated as a Naval Reserve Force ship as part of an economy drive due to funding requirements for theVietnam War andWhitehurst was soon deactivated. On 12 July 1969, she was taken out of service, struck from theNavy List and stripped of any usable equipment. She was sunk as atarget byTrigger (SS-564) on 28 April 1971.
Combat Action Ribbon
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Philippine Liberation Medal (Republic of the Philippines)
United Nations Korea Medal (United Nations)
Korean War Service Medal (Republic of Korea)
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be foundhere andhere.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1952 | |
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| Other incidents |
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1971 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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