Fletcher-class destroyer
|
History
|
United States
|
Namesake
| Solomon Wren
|
Builder
| Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
|
Laid down
| 24 April 1943
|
Launched
| 29 January 1944
|
Commissioned
| 20 May 1944
|
Decommissioned
| December 1963
|
Stricken
| 1 December 1974
|
Honours and
awards
| 3 Battle Stars
|
Fate
| Sold for scrap, 22 October 1975
|
General characteristics
|
Class and type
| Fletcher
-class
destroyer
|
Displacement
| 2,050 tons
|
Length
| 376 ft 6 in (114.7 m)
|
Beam
| 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m)
|
Draft
| 17 ft 9 in (5.4 m)
|
Propulsion
| 60,000 shp (45 MW); 2 propellers
|
Speed
| 35
knots
(65 km/h; 40 mph)
|
Range
| 6500
nm
(12,000 km) at 15 kn
|
Complement
| 273
|
Armament
| |
USS
Wren
(DD-568)
was a
Fletcher
-class
destroyer
of the
United States Navy
.
Namesake
[
edit
]
Solomon Wren was born in 1780 in
Loudoun County, Virginia
. He enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps
at
Alexandria, Virginia
on 1 April 1799. Assigned to the
schooner
USS
Enterprise
, Wren rose in rank and, by the end of 1803, had been promoted to
sergeant
.
In February 1804, Wren volunteered for the expedition to destroy the
frigate
USS
Philadelphia
, captured by the
Tripolitan
pirates
on October 31, 1803 after grounding on an uncharted reef off Tripoli. Under the command of Lieutenant
Stephen Decatur, Jr.
, Wren and 68 other sailors and marines entered Tripoli harbor on the night of February 16, in the
ketch
USS
Intrepid
and succeeded in setting fire to the former American ship during the
First Barbary War
. On 3 August 1804 Wren was slightly wounded while assigned to
Gunboat No. 4
during another attack on Tripoli. On 20 September he transferred to the frigate
USS
John Adams
and returned home. He was detached from the Marine Corps on 24 March 1805 and no further record of his life has been found.
Construction and commissioning
[
edit
]
Wren
was laid down on 24 April 1943 at
Seattle, Wash.
, by the
Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp.
;
launched
on 29 January 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Jeanne F. Dockweiler; and
commissioned
on 20 May 1944.
Wren
had three blade props instead of four, making her much faster than most
Fletcher
class destroyers: 39.9 knots instead of the 35 listed above which was the standard
Fletcher
speed.
[1]
World War II
[
edit
]
Following commissioning,
Wren
operated out of
San Diego, Calif.
conducting shakedown training. In August, she reported for duty with the
Northern Pacific Force
in the
Aleutian Islands
. Her duties there consisted largely of patrol and escort work between the islands of the Aleutian chain. She did, however, participate in four shore bombardment missions against the Japanese
Kuril Islands
with Task Force 92 (TF 92) between November 1944 and April 1945. Her first action occurred on 21 November 1944 when she participated in the shelling of
Matsuwa
. Her second and third bombardment missions took her to
Paramushiro
on 5 January and 18 February 1945, respectively. Her final bombardment of the Kurils took place on 15 March 1945, and Matsuwa again served as the target.
On 19 April, she stood out of
Kulsk Bay
, bound for
Hawaii
. The destroyer arrived at
Pearl Harbor
on the 25th but soon continued her voyage to the Western
Carolines
. She stopped at
Ulithi
Atoll until 17 May at which time she left the lagoon on her way to join in the six-week-old
Okinawa campaign
. The ship served in the
Ryukyus
from 21 May to 18 June, performing antisubmarine patrols and standing antiaircraft
radar picket
watch. She came under air attack on several occasions but sustained no major hits while ending the careers of at least four of her airborne attackers.
Departing
Okinawa
on 18 June, she arrived at
Leyte
in the
Philippines
three days later and remained there until 1 July when she joined units of
TF 38
for the final series of
carrier
-based aerial attacks on Japan.
Wren
spent the remaining weeks of the war at sea with TF 38 supporting the carriers while their planes struck the
Japanese
homeland.
On 26 August,
Wren
entered
Tokyo Bay
with other elements of the
3d Fleet
to begin the occupation of Japan and to prepare for the formal surrender ceremony at which she was present on 2 September. She departed Japan that same day and, during the next month, visited
Iwo Jima
and
Eniwetok
. The warship returned to
Tokyo
on 13 October for a visit of just over a month. She departed Japan on 18 November and arrived at
Oahu
on the 28th. Resuming her voyage east on 1 December, she entered San Diego on the 7th. After a two-day visit, she headed—by way of the
Panama Canal
—for the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
where she arrived on 23 December. After an inactivation overhaul at Philadelphia,
Wren
moved to
Charleston, S.C.
, late in March 1946. On 13 July 1946, the destroyer was placed out of commission at Charleston.
Wren
earned three
battle stars
during
World War II
.
1951 – 1963
[
edit
]
A little over five years later, on 7 September 1951,
Wren
was placed back in commission at Charleston. For the next two years, she operated along the eastern seaboard and in the
West Indies
. During the latter months of 1951, she conducted standardization and vibration tests under the auspices of the
Bureau of Ships
and its research facility at
Carderock, Md.
, the
David Taylor Model Basin
. She returned to Charleston in December and, throughout 1952 and for the first eight months of 1953, performed normal operations and training in the western Atlantic.
In August 1953,
Wren
was reassigned to Destroyer Division 61 (DesDiv 61) for deployment to the Far East. She stood out of
Norfolk, Va.
on 28 August and transited the Panama Canal on 2 September. After stops at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, and
Midway
, she arrived in
Yokosuka
on 3 October. A week later, she put to sea to join
Task Force 77
(TF 77) in the
Sea of Japan
. The fast carriers conducted air operations there and in the
Yellow Sea
, and
Wren
provided screen and plane-guard services to them between 10 October and 26 November. Following that assignment, she joined the
Australian
carrier
HMAS
Sydney
and provided similar services until mid-December when she returned to Japan at Sasebo for the Christmas holidays.
The destroyer rejoined TF 77 on 3 January 1954 and cruised with the carriers until the 17th when she became a unit of TF 95. She served along the
Korean
coast carrying out cease-fire surveillance missions with TF 95 until 1 February, when she returned to
Sasebo
to prepare for the voyage home. She departed Japan on 11 February and, taking a westward route through the
Indian
and
Atlantic Oceans
, completed a
circumnavigation
of the globe when she arrived in Norfolk on 9 April.
For the remainder of her active career,
Wren
operated out of Norfolk periodically making overseas deployments. Among her
2nd Fleet
activities were midshipman summer cruises, some to northern
European
ports and others to West Indian and American ports. She also served with the
6th Fleet
in the
Mediterranean Sea
on several occasions. Annual "Springboard" exercises took her to
Puerto Rico
,
Cuba
, and
Panama
each spring. During her 1957 Mediterranean deployment, the ship served with the
Mid East
Force in the Indian Ocean and participated in
Operation Crescent
with units of the
Pakistani Navy
.
Wren
appeared in the 1959 movie,
Operation Petticoat
while on a port call to
Naval Station Key West
, Florida.
Transferred to the Naval Reserve Force, the Wren was later used by a
Naval Reserve
unit in
Houston, Texas
and based in
Galveston, Texas
in the early 1960s. During this time, it supported Naval Reserve activities and made weekend
ASW
training trips in the
Gulf of Mexico
.
In December 1963, after almost a decade of duty with the Atlantic Fleet,
Wren
was placed out of commission, in reserve. She spent the next 11 years in the Reserve Fleet, berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Facility at Naval Station Philadelphia. Her name was struck from the
Navy list
in December 1974 and on 22 October 1975, she was sold to the North American Smelting Co.,
Wilmington, Del.
, for scrapping.
In movies and television
[
edit
]
The ship is seen in the movie
Operation Petticoat
(1959). USS
Wren
also portrayed the destroyer that first communicates with
George Ray Tweed
in the 1962 film
No Man is an Island
. She also appeared on the
Magnum, P.I.
1983 episode "Operation Silent Night" (archival film footage, since
Wren
had already been scrapped).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Per Raymond Collins BT2 USS
Wren
1952-1956
Sources
[
edit
]
External links
[
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]