Cold War, Soviet Ships. Mediterranean Sea. January 1976.
A Fighter Squadron 32 (VF 32), F-14A Tomcat fighter aircraft seen in full color livery while in flight near a Soviet “Kresta II” class guided missile cruiser underway below. The Tomcat was assigned on board the aircraft carrierUSS John F. Kennedy (CV 67).
Note that the Cat is “dressed for work,” carrying a mixture of Phoenix, Sparrow, and Sidewinder missiles.
Photograph received January 1976. U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 428-GX-K-112540
The squadron has a lot of “firsts” on its sheet.
VF-32, the “Fighting Swordsmen” or “Gypsies” depending on which year you are talking about, originated on 1 February 1945, as Bombing Fighting (VBF) 3, after the old “Felix the Cat” Fighter Squadron (VF) 3 was split into two squadrons. VBF-3 joined Carrier Air Group 3 aboard USS Yorktown (CV 10) operating in the Pacific theater. Flying F6F-5 Hellcats, VBF-3 pilots became the first Navy carrier-based pilots to attack the homeland of the Japanese Empire. During heavy action, the squadron shot down 24 Japanese aircraft for which the Swordsmen received the Presidential Unit Citation.
By 1948, they had been redesignated VF-32 and were flying Corsairs, aircraft they would use to good effect in Korea from the deck of USS Leyte (CV 32). The squadron had Jesse Brown and Thomas Hudner for that cruise.
Ensign Jesse L. Brown, USN. In the cockpit of an F4U-4 Corsair fighter, circa 1950. He was the first African-American to be trained by the Navy as a Naval Aviator, and as such, he became the first African-American Naval Aviator to see combat. Brown flew with Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32) from USS Leyte (CV-32). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. USN 1146845.
Finishing out that war, they were the first squadron to field the F9F-6 Cougar and later the Navy’s first supersonic squadron when they switched to a different Corsair, the F-8, which they flew during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
By 1966, in early F-4B Phantoms, they logged 940 sorties over Vietnam from USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA 42).
Then they entered their Tomcat period in 1974– an aircraft they used to good effect, often from JKF, over Lebanon, Grenada, against Libya, Bosnia, the Gulf War, and OIF, also grabbing the Admiral Clifton Award numerous times.
They hugged the “Bombcat” a tearful goodbye in 2005, capping a 31-year run with the F-14 platform, and shifted to Rhinos, flying F-18F Super Hornets since then as the NAS Oceana-based VFA-32.
In addition to multiple GWOT deployments, on 14 July 2024, an unidentified female pilot in VFA-32 became the first American female pilot to engage and kill an air-to-air contact as part of 1,500 combat missions in support of Operations Inherent Resolve and Prosperity Guardian.
How about this great shot some 50 years ago today, showing a quartet of full-color Grumman A-6A Intruder aircraft (BuNo 155623, 155624, 155625, 157014) of U.S. Marine Corps All-Weather Medium Attack Squadron (VMA(AW)) 242 flying in echelon formation on 21 November 1975.
Photo by Sgt. C. Quinn, USMC, VIRIN: DM-SC-84-04345
Commissioned on 1 July 1943 at MCAS El Centro, California as Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron (VMTB) 242 with an insignia that included Bugs Bunny riding a torpedo, the squadron flew TBM Avengers throughout the Westpac in the last 20 months of the war, operating from bases ranging from the Solomons to Iwo Jima.
Inactivated post-war and stood back up in 1960, they first flew Skyhawks and then Intruders, stacking up a tally of 16,783 combat sorties delivering 85,990 tons of ordnance in successive tours in Vietnam, where they switched to the “Bats” nickname. One of the last Marine A-6 squadrons, they only transitioned to the F/A-18D Hornet in 1990, which they used to great effect in air support missions in Iraq in 2005.
Today, the Bats of VMFA-242 operate F-35Bs tasked to MAG-12 (1st MAW) out of MCAS Iwakuni. Of note, while they started off looking for Japanese carriers to sink in 1944, the unit recently was the first F-35 squadron to conduct operational testing on the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Izumo, the country’s first “big deck” fixed-wing carrier since WWII.
One of my favorite American subguns is the S&W M76.
I mean, just look at it:
Developed in 1966 for the U.S. Navy SEALs, the Smith & Wesson Model 76 Submachine Gun was built to replace the famous and much more prolific M/45 “Swedish K” after U.S. supply was cut off during the Vietnam War. Production of the M76 continued until 1974, with a total of roughly 6,000 units built.
Chambered in 9mm Parabellum, the Model 76 Submachine Gun featured a simple blowback operation and had a cyclic rate of around 600–700 rounds per minute. It fed from a 36-round box magazine and had an ambidextrous selector lever allowing either full or semi-auto fire, a folding stock, optional suppressor capability, and long rifling-like grooves to allow dirt and fouling to accumulate without impacting the gun’s reliability.
Jerry Miculek, probably the nicest guy in the gun industry, gets into the Smith & Wesson Vault and lays hands on an M76 for the win.
Last week’s post about the USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751) serving as a Forward Afloat Staging Base off Alaska during NORTHCOM’s Exercise Arctic Edge 2025 reminded me of the service’s long-standing tradition of such operations.
It actually predates the Coast Guard itself.
City Point (1895-1913)
Due to the shifting waters near the falls of the Ohio River, the Louisville Lifeboat Station (Lifesaving Station No. 10), put into service in 1881, was afloat.
The Louisville Lifeboat Station
Successful, its 1902 replacement was of the same pattern as was its 1929 steel-hulled successor, and remained in USCG service in 1972. Today, it is preserved as the only surviving floating lifesaving station of the United States Life-Saving Service.
This sets the stage for the more blue water City Point Station.
The original USLSS City Point Station, circa 1896-1913, Nathaniel L. Stebbins photographic collection PC047.02.4110.16294
Dialing it back to 1895 (the USCG was formed in 1916), a U.S. Lifesaving Service station was originally described as a “floating station in Dorchester Bay, Boston Harbor,” was authorized as the region had suffered the loss of forty lives on the water, usually in the summer months, from 1890 to 1894. Congressman Michael J. McEttrick introduced a bill in Congress, which was finally passed, and the station was secured, and it was dubbed the “City Point Station.”
From the USLSS 1895 Annual Report:
And duly installed, as noted from the service’s 1896 report:
The anchored wooden-hulled station, approximately 100 feet long and 33 feet abeam, was home to a 10-man crew and housed a pair of naphtha-powered launches, a dighny, and a heavy surfboat.
Equipped with a generator, they had electric wiring and a large searchlight and signal lights up top.
An innovative feature was an early well deck or “harbor room” in the stern.
An appropriation of $7,000 was made for the construction of the station itself, and in a short time the strange craft was growing under the hands of workmen at Palmer’s shipyard at Noank, Conn., and for 50 days the work progressed, at the end of which time the station was completed, and towed from Noank, Conn., to Boston, and on its arrival Sunday, August 3, 1896, was moored to Loring’s wharf to await fitting out.
It is needless to say that the station, being an innovation, attracted much attention. Visitors saw it as it is today, except for the doors, which were afterward cut on each side of the harbor room. Its form is that of a huge flat iron, the forward end, or bow, coming to a point, while the rear or stern is cut off short. It is 100 feet long,33 feet beam, 6 feet deep, and draws about two feet of water, and is a double-deck affair, the upper deck being about 15 feet above the waterline.
The feature of the station is the harbor at the stern, or what might be called the main entrance to the station. This harbor in which the two naphtha launches of the station are kept, is formed by having an opening 30 feet long and 17 feet wide, cut from the stern directly into the center of the station, leaving on three sides about eight feet of deck room, while the entire harbor is sheltered by the upper deck, which extends to the end of the station.
From the harbor, or launch room, a hallway extends the entire length of the station, off of which are several rooms; on the left is the kitchen, dining room and the crew’s quarters, and on the right the captain’s office, his bed room and the store room, the space at the bow being devoted to the windlass and anchors with which the station is held in position.
Leading from this hallway on the right is a small flight of stairs to the upper deck, and in addition to this are the two other flights, leading from the harbor room, one on the port and one on the starboard side. The upper deck is completely clear with the exception of a lookout, which sets about 30 feet from the bow in the center of the deck, with a flight of steps leading to it. It is surrounded by a railing and is connected with the launch room and the captain’s room by speaking tubes.
Rising from the deck is a flagpole, upon which the national emblem is displayed during the day and a lantern at night. At the stern, on huge davits, hangs the heavy surf boat, in a position to be lowered at an instant’s notice. Davits on the port and starboard sides hold smaller boats. In the harbor are the launches, one of which is 28 feet, with a speed of ten knots, and the other 25 feet in length, with a speed of eight knots.
Towed into position each April/May and then towed back to its winter berth near Chelsea Bridge in October/November, the station was manned by the same crew for the duration of the summer with no relief. The 10 men consisted of a station captain and nine surfmen (one of whom was also paid as a cook), with three of the latter on duty round the clock.
Completed too late to get much practical use in 1896, its first full season deployed was in 1897, where its crew helped 115 small craft in distress and rescued 23 persons, who were taken back to the station for care.
The year 1899 set a new record of 33 persons saved and 183 assisted while coming to the rescue of 97 boats, the latter valued at $63,285, or nine times the initial outlay to build the station.
From a period Roland Libbey article on City Point in the Boston Globe
From a period Roland Libbey article on City Point in the Boston Globe
City Point had its naphtha-powered launches replaced by steam launches in 1900 and was extensively rebuilt in 1913 “to replace a structure that is old and unsuited to present-day needs.”
She would be joined by other bases in the 1920s.
A half dozen floating bases during Prohibition
Speaking of which…
In 1924, with the “Rum War” afoot and the now USCG with a serious need to push assets further offshore to intercept bootleggers speeding out to usually British or Canadian-flagged “blacks” (so named as they ran at night sans flags or lights) anchored just off the three-mile limit on “Rum Row,” the service acquired five new floating bases– Argus, Colfax, Moccasin, Pickering, and Wayanda.
Four of these new bases (Argus, Colfax, Pickering, and Wayanda) were concrete boats originally commissioned for the Army Quartermaster Service for troop and supply transport between Army bases along the coast. The Army had built 16 such flat-bottomed vessels, powered by twin gasoline (!) engines, then quickly disposed of them.
The Army QM Corps concrete riverboats, Colonel J. E. Sawyer and Major Archibald Butt, at a dock in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1920.
The other two, the reconstructed City Point and the new Moccasin, had wooden hulls. All but City Point had propulsion plants.
U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe
U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, circa 1916-1939 by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe
U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe
U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe
All had extensive cabin structures topside and served as moored motherships for the service’s 36 and 38-foot picket boats, much closer to Rum Row than the coastal bases.
The 38-foot cabin picket boat. USCG Photo
The Boston-based City Point of the era was a wooden-hulled floating platform that was rebuilt in 1913 at Greenport, New York, and was 109′ 6″ by 33′ by 3′ 6″.
Colfax was the former Army QM vessel General Rufus Ingalls and was 150 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 13 feet deep.
Argus was originally the concrete-hulled Army QM vessel Major E. Pickett. Her dimensions were: 128′ 5″ x 28′ x 12′. Commissioned as Argus on 1 December 1924 at Rockaway Inlet, New York, and was moved to New London, Connecticut, in May of 1925, she was the flagship of the Coast Guard Destroyer Force.
Pickeringwas the former Army QM Brigadier General O. A. Allison, and was a concrete boat built to the same plan as Major E. Pickett/Argus in 1921 for the War Department. After her acquisition by the Coast Guard, she was stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey, as of October 1924.
Wayandawas the former Army vessel Colonel William H. Baldwin, a 128-foot ‘crete boat like Pickering and Argus. She was purchased on 21 October 1924 from the John W. Sullivan Company in New York. She was stationed at Greenport, New York, as of 26 November 1924.
Moccasinwas the former wooden-hulled Liberator, 102′ 6″ by 47’9″ by 10′, that was built in 1921 at Lybeck, Florida. She was purchased from Gibbs Gas Engineering Company on August 20, 1924, and commissioned on November 17, 1924. She served in Miami, Florida.
With Prohibition winding down, the Coast Guard started ridding itself of these floating bases by the late 1920s, and only the concrete Baldwin/Wayanda and the wooden-hulled City Point II outlived the Volstead Act.
Wayanda was last listed in Coast Guard records in 1934, while the second City Point only disappeared from the list of USCG stations after the 1939 season.
In the meantime, the cutter Yocana served as a mothership to clusters of picket boats during the 1937 floods on the Mississippi.
A dozen Coast Guard picket boats muster beside the former CGC Yocona on the Mississippi River during the Great Ohio, Mississippi River Valley Flood of 1937. U.S. Coast Guard photo. Yocona was a 182-foot Kankakee-class stern paddle wheelers built for the Coast Guard in 1919 and stationed at Vicksburg. Click to big up
Other examples
Of course, the service’s large blue water cutters have filled the role of offshore mothership several times since then, with its CGRON3 in Vietnam clocking in to feed, bunk, and refuel both USCG 83-foot patrol boats and Navy Brown water assets such as PBRs and PCFs, as well as the sustained offshore surveillance of Grenada in 1983-84 (Operation Island Breeze).
Point class refueling from USCGC Dallas in Vietnam 2
More recent mothership ops have been seen with the long-distance deployment of FRCs to the Persian Gulf in 2022 and in response to 2017’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
While we’ve covered the Vietnam-era deployments of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 26 Point-class patrol boats (CGRON One) and the follow-on rotating mission of 31 blue water cutters with CGRON Three (the latter of which steamed 1.2 million miles, inspected 69,517 vessels and fired 77,036 5-inch shells ashore), there was a third series of unsung USCG deployments that still saw a good bit of action.
Between 1966 and 1972, at least four WWII-era 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders (USCGC Planetree, Ironwood, Basswood, and Blackhaw) were moved to Sangley Point, Philippines, from where they rotated to the waters around South Vietnam in 3-to-7-week stints, establishing a modern aids-to-navigation (ATON) system and training a motley collection of locals to keep tending them moving forward.
The Coast Guard Cutter Basswood works a buoy as busy Vietnamese fishermen travel to the open sea and their fishing grounds from Vung Tau harbor during her 1967 deployment. The cutter battled monsoon weather for a 30-day tour to establish and reservice sea aids-to-navigation dotting the 1,000-mile South Vietnamese coastline. USCG Historian’s Office photo
The 180-foot buoy tender USCGC Blackhaw (W390) in 1960, still with her circa 1943 3-inch mount behind her stack.
Blackhaw tending aids to navigation off Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam in September 1970, with RVN lighthouse service personnel aboard. Blackhaw spent 11 stints in Vietnamese waters while staged from the Philippines: 13 March- 6 May 1968; 24June-18JuIy 1968; 9 September-11 October 1968; 16 January- 4 March 1969; 16 April-3 May 1969; 16 June-3 July 1969; 24 October-7 December 1969; 23 April-18 May 1970; 24 October-10 November 1970; 13 January-7 March 1971; 25 April-17 May 1971.
While they carried a 3″/50 DP mount, Oerlikons, and depth charges when built, most of the 180s landed their topside armament during the 1950s, as it generally wasn’t needed to go that heavy while tending navigational aids stateside at the time.
This changed for the Southeast Asia-bound tenders, who added a pair of topside M2 .50 cal Brownings (later raised to eight!), as many as four M60 machine guns, and a serious small arms locker that included M1 Garands, M16s, M1911s, shotguns, spam cans of 10-gauge Very flares, depth charge markers, and grenades.
Lots of grenades.
Check out this 1970 ordnance draw from Sangley Point by Blackhaw:
The 7,000 rounds of .22LR are likely for recreational use, with the tender probably having a couple of rimfire pistols and rifles aboard for downtime target practice.
Working in the Vietnamese littoral, they came under enemy fire regularly and returned said fire. For example, in one incident in 1970, Blackhaw’s crew expended 132 grenades (!), 3,360 rounds of 5.56/.30 cal for rifles, 2,300 7.62 rounds for light machine guns, and 3,535 rounds .50 cal for heavy machine guns reacting to combat. Heady stuff for navigational aids guys!
Check out this deck log from a rocket encounter on Blackhaw while operating in conjunction with Navy Seawolf helicopters and PCFs.
Also, when anchored overnight within distance of shore, rifle-armed topside sentries typically dropped a grenade over the side every 20 minutes or so and/or fired off a Very signal to discourage enemy sappers from swimming out with limpet mines. Hence, the need for a pallet of hand grenades on a buoy tender.
More details on Blackhaw’s work, via a 1970 Proceedings article by LCDR Robert C. Powers, U. S. Navy, Former Logistics Plans and Requirements Officer, Staff, U. S. Naval Forces, Vietnam:
The basic plan was for the United States to provide material, technical advice, and funds to the Directorate of Navigation, who would provide buoy tender services. A staff study by Commander Coast Guard Activities Vietnam in April 1967 concluded that greater U. S. assistance was necessary in completing the desired improvements, and recommended full time use of a large buoy tender in Vietnam. USAID was to continue upgrading the Directorate of Navigation so that they could completely take over the aids to navigation mission by January 1969.
Coast Guard buoy tenders in the Pacific were reassigned, and the USCGC Blackhaw, (WLB-390) a 180-foot buoy tender, was employed full time for this task in January 1968. Her homeport was changed from Honolulu to Sangley Point in the Philippines. One officer and 14 enlisted men were added to the normal ship’s complement of six officers and 43 men. Six additional .50-caliber machine guns were installed, giving her a total of eight. Two 7.62-mm. machine guns were also added. The Blackhaw’s schedule was planned to provide about 40 days in-country per quarter, with no duties except for the job of Vietnam aids to navigation. In July 1968, the Joint Chiefs of Staff formalized this employment.
The Coast Guard has now installed and is operating 55 lighted buoys, 50 unlighted buoys, and 33 lighted structures in Vietnam. A small Coast Guard buoy depot has been established at Cam Ranh Bay, for in-country storage and maintenance of NavAid equipment. The Directorate of Navigation continues to operate those aids which were in place before Coast Guard involvement, but is not yet capable of relieving the Coast Guard in the maintenance of U. S. installed aids.
The aids to navigation detail remains in Saigon, attached to the Coast Guard Southeast Asia section. They schedule work for the Blackhaw and also repair light outages when the Blackhaw is not in the area.
Operation of a system of maritime aids to navigation in Vietnam is not the same as operating systems in the United States. Charts, for example, are poor, and accurately charted landmarks that may be used for buoy positioning are scarce. The channels, whether natural or dredged, are notoriously unstable. An example of this is the Cua Viet Entrance Channel Buoy 6. Established in 30 feet of water in October 1968, six months later the buoy became a shore light—high and dry. Enemy sappers have also been discovered and shot in the areas of moored buoy tenders. Viet Cong have stolen batteries from range lights. In Tan My, for instance, 50 batteries were lost in two months.
Several buoys are run down each month, usually resulting in a loss of lighting equipment. Within a representative four-month period, 40% of all unlighted buoys received damage as a result of collision, gunfire, and weather, and 70% of all lighted aids required extensive repair, recharge, and re-positioning. Before working on any buoy, a diver thoroughly inspects each buoy mooring for explosive charges.
Since active Coast Guard involvement in this task began, the maritime aids to navigation system in Vietnam has continued to improve. Harbormasters and pilots in all ports are happy with these improvements. Vietnamese personnel are on board the Blackhaw, while she is in-country, to become familiar with the system and maintenance methods.
The USCG turned over the ATON duties in South Vietnam to the locals on 31 December 1972, capping a forgotten footnote in the service’s history. As far as I can tell, none of the four tenders suffered any official combat casualties during their Vietnam service (with Agent Orange exposure being another matter).
Blackhaw earned a U.S. Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation as well as more Combat Ribbons than any other cutter.
She served in California waters until decommissioning in February 1993. Ship breakers stripped the former cutter of her valuable equipment, and the hulk was sunk as a target vessel. Nonetheless, she endures on the silver screen as she appears in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October as a Soviet icebreaker trailing the titular Typhoon-class SSBN during the opening sequence.
While the 16th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was activated under the Army National Guard in 1960, and later separated into the 19th and 20th SFGs by 1961, which remain active and with some 2,000 members on their rolls each, the Guard has had few dedicated parachute-certified units.
Indiana Rangers: The Army Guard in Vietnam By Mort Kunstler
The old 1970s-80s Pathfinder Dets (typically just 6-12 men each) in the Guard morphed into long-range surveillance detachments (LRSDs), which in turn were disbanded circa 2006.
At their peak around 2000, the Guard counted three 163-man LRSCs (company-sized units of three platoons aligned to Corps HQs on mobilization) and nine 56-man LRSDs (each organized into six six-man LRS teams plus support personnel) allocated to divisional HQs. While many of its members were Ranger-tabbed, and the teams worked up much more than standard Guard units, they still needed at least a 90-day workup before deployment and often ran as much as 40 percent under strength.
Then, in 2015, the Guard redesignated the 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment (the old Texas 3rd Infantry) as an airborne light infantry battalion and the next year aligned it officially with the Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, which only had two active battalions. The 1st-143rd was comprised of mostly Texas-based units with one (Charlie) Company hailing from Rhode Island.
They followed up in 2019 with the 2nd Battalion, 134th Infantry Regiment, made up of five companies of Nebraska paratroopers and one from Indiana. Confusingly, they were assigned to the Oklahoma Guard’s 45th “Thunderbird” Division. While it would have been logical to align it with the Alaska-based 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division (which included an active-duty airborne battalion, 1st/501st), it seems that was never done.
Now, with the 4th BCT, 25th ID reformed as the very light 11th “Arctic Angels” Airborne Division, which includes two paratrooper battalions and two of “leg” infantry, and the Army looking to reduce the number of parachute-certified (and jump paid) personnel from a somewhat amazing 56,000 to around 33,000 soldiers, the Guard’s two Airborne battalions are losing their wings.
The 2nd-134th Infantry conducted their last jump over the weekend at the Husker Drop Zone. Last month, they made a breathtaking jump in front of Chimney Rock in western Nebraska.
The move is expected to save at least $40 million per year in jump pay alone, not to mention gas in planes/helicopters, and millions in lifecycle costs on the T-11 NMC parachute system.
Plus, the Army says it has a hard time passing enough new personnel through jump school every year, does not have enough assets to conduct the mandatory four jumps a year for everyone to maintain the certification, and has a dearth of empty billets in the parachute rigger specialty. Of note, 92R MOS riggers now have a $22K enlistment bonus.
On the upside, with the cut in 23,000 para positions, Soldiers in the remaining “priority formations” will see significant increases in training opportunities, with top-tier units executing up to 12 jumps per year—three times the current minimum.
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Warship Wednesday, September 17, 2025: ‘A Good Record, and a Proud Ship’
Courtesy of Colonel Robert D. Heinl, USMC. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. (NH 42351)
Above we see the Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer USS De Haven (DD-727) as she supports the first and second waves of landing craft moving toward Red Beach at burning Inchon at 0700 on 15 September 1950, some 75 years ago this week, as photographed from a Marine Air Group Twelve (MAG-12) aircraft, from either VMF-214 or VMF-215.
In more ways than one, despite her service in three real-life shooting wars and a long-running tasking as a guinea pig, the “Ravin’ D” would become the poster child for Inchon, and for good reason.
The Sumners
The Sumners, an attempt to up the firepower on the previous and highly popular Fletcher-class destroyers, mounted a half-dozen 5″/38s in a trio of dual mounts, as well as 10 21-inch torpedo tubes in a pair of five-tube turntable stations. Going past this, they were packed full of sub-busting and plane-smoking weapons as well as some decent sonar and radar sets for the era.
Sumner class layout, 1944
With 336 men crammed into a 376-foot hull, they were cramped, slower than expected (but still capable of beating 33 knots all day), and overloaded (although they reportedly rode wildly when in light conditions). Still, they are fighting ships that earned good reputations for being almost indestructible.
Cost per hull, in 1944 dollars, was about $8 million, excluding armament, compared to the $6 million price for a Fletcher, a big jump.
Meet De Haven
Our vessel was the second Navy ship named in honor of LT Edwin Jess De Haven.
Born in Philadelphia in 1816, joined up with the fleet age the ripe old age of 10 as a midshipman and made his name as an early polar explorer, shipping out with the Wilkes Expedition (1839-42), and looking for Sir John Franklin’s lost polar expedition as skipper of the humble 81-foot brigantine USS Advance in 1850 as part of the Grinnell expedition. Placed on the retired list in 1862 due to failing eyesight, he passed in 1865.
His aging granddaughter, Mrs. Helen N. De Haven, made the trip to Maine’s Bath Iron Works from her home in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in 1942 to participate in the launching ceremony for the first ship to carry his name, the Fletcher-class destroyer DD-469. Commissioned on 21 September 1942, that valiant greyhound was sunk just 133 days later, the 15th American destroyer lost in the Guadalcanal campaign.
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS De Haven (DD-469) off Savo Island, viewed from USS Fletcher, 30 January 1943, two days before she was lost. NARA image 80-G-284578
The second De Haven was a member of the much-improved Sumner class. Laid down once again at Bath Works on 9 August 1943 (just two days after the contract, NOBs-309, was issued), she was BIW Hull #228.
The late LT De Haven’s granddaughter, then 56, dutifully came to christen this second destroyer as well on a chilly 9 January 1944, sending the hull into the embrace of the Kennebec River. We all pitch in where we can in wartime.
As detailed by the Bath Independent:
Helen N. De Haven, Sponsor of USS DeHaven Photograph, January 9, 1944. Via Maine Maritime Museum 81_029/81_031
Launching of USS DeHaven DD-727, January 9, 1944 via Maine Maritime Museum D_DE_031
Commissioned 31 March 1944, her construction ran just 235 days.
Her plank owner crew was led by CDR John Bagley Dimmick (USNA 38), who would be De Haven’s skipper through the following June. Before joining De Haven, Dimmick had earned a Legion of Merit while on the staff of Commander Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet, on the team to improve the effective operation of the 5-inch gun batteries in destroyers.
On 9 July, she became the flagship of Desron 61 (Desdiv 121 and 122), the second squadron of Sumners, made up of USS Mansfield (DD 728), Lyman K. Swenson (DD 729), Collett (DD 730), Maddox (DD 731), Blue (DD 744), Brush (DD 745), Taussig (DD 746), and Samuel N. Moore (DD 747), with Capt. Jesse H. Carter moving aboard with his staff for the duration of the war.
De Haven making knots off Race Point, July 1944, via USS DeHaven.org
War!
USS De Haven (DD-727) underway in 1944. NH 52484
After shakedowns in Bermuda, De Haven pulled the mission to escort the small old flattop USS Ranger (CV 4) from Norfolk– capping the carrier’s Atlantic service– to the Pacific, where the Torch veteran would be tasked with preparing air groups out of Pearl Harbor for combat operations on the sharp end.
Dropping off Ranger in Hawaii on 3 August 1944, De Haven continued onward, escorting west-bound convoys including the carriers USS Enterprise, Intrepid, and Independence to Eniwetok before joining the fast carriers of TF 38 at Ulithi for operations in the Philippines, arriving just off Luzon as an escort with these carriers of TU 38.1.3 on 4 November.
She would continue such screens through January 1945, including raids along the Indochina coast and Formosa, with notable incidents including the rescue of a downed VF-7 Hellcat pilot from USS Hancock on 14 December and steaming through Typhoon Cobra on 17/18 December, coming to within about 35nm of the storm’s center while registering sustained 55 knot winds and mountainous seas.
Typhoon Cobra, as observed by radar. NOAA photo
De Haven spent the next several days combing the debris scattered seas for survivors from three other destroyers that were not as lucky. No less than 718 souls perished at sea during the typhoon. Nimitz noted later that “It was the greatest loss that we have taken in the Pacific without compensatory return since the First Battle of Savo.”
February 1945 brought the Iwo Jima landings and more carrier screening. It was during plane guard duties for USS Bennington on 12 February that a TBF of VT-82 was struck by a rocket accidentally fired from a Hellcat of VF-82, causing the death of two of the three men aboard the Avenger. One of De Haven’s crew, PhM2c Edward Price, dove into the open sea and rescued the pilot, Ensign Paul F. Cochran, who was being dragged under the hull by the weight of his sinking parachute. Price was recommended for the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
On the 16th, she stood by her carriers as they made the first attacks on the coasts of the Japanese main islands since the Doolittle Raid. While the Doolittle carriers never made it closer than 650 miles from Japan, De Haven logged her position as only 150.
1/2 March saw her engage in some good old-fashioned naval bombardment, soaking Okino Daito Jima from close offshore with other destroyers overnight. She expended 14 rounds of 5″/38 Common, 432 of 40mm, and 815 of 20mm.
This dovetailed into the Okinawa landings and near constant anti-air watches for weeks, continuing this task through 13 June, including firing on at least three bogeys that came in close, counting a “sure assist” kill on an Emily. She proved a worthy lifeguard for a second time, pulling 1LT H.F. Pfremmer, USMCR, a member of Bennington’s fighter group, from the sea on 14 May.
She once again was allowed a break from plane guard and air defense duties for another fire mission, hitting Minami Daito Jima on 10 June with 104 5″/38 Common, including 23 two-gun salvos, seven four-gun salvos, and five satisfying six-gun salvos. She had hit the island on 21 April already, firing 90 rounds at its airstrip just before sunset.
Oh yeah, and she survived a second maelstrom, Typhoon Connie, during which she saved a third aviator, a pilot from USS Hornet. The “half-drowned” pilot, Lt (j.g.) John David Loeffler, USNR, was plucked from the water just eight minutes after he hit the drink, rescued by PhM2c Robert Wayne Simmons, who swam to the aviator to buckle a chest strap around him so that he could be lifted aboard with a whip hoist. Simmons was recommended for the Navy and Marine Corps medal.
Then came operations directly against the Japanese home islands proper.
On 9 July, she assumed a radar picket station some 20 miles (later 50 miles) West of the center of her task force. There, she was a control ship for inbound U.S. and RN strikes, as well as an early warning tripwire for rarely seen Japanese aircraft headed out to sea, and as a floating life guard station. She and her DesRon 61 sisters would remain on this duty through 15 August, with De Haven sinking over a dozen floating Japanese mines with 20mm cannon fire, and rescuing several downed aviators (including Lt CW Moore, USS Shangri La, 15 July; Ensign Frank Kopf, Bennington, 25 July; and Ensign J.A. Lungren, Bennington, 13 August).
She also took part in an epic littoral raid from the sea.
With each of the Sumners mounting six 5″/38s, they could get off a tremendous amount of fire when needed.
Detecting a Japanese convoy of four vessels at 2305 while still 33,000 yards away, the chase was on. Closing to within 11,000 yards by 2353, the engagement took just 16 minutes and saw the DDs fire 3,291 5-inch shells and let fly some 18 torpedoes.
The score? One Japanese merchant ship was sunk– the freighter No.5 Hakutetsu Maru (810 t), and the other, Enbun Maru (7,030 t), was damaged. The escorting IJN minesweeper (No. 1) and subchaser (No. 42) were unharmed. The little convoy was carrying a disassembled aircraft factory and was headed to Korea to set up shop, a trip that was aborted after the battle.
The American losses were zero.
As noted by the National WWII Museum, the engagement, termed today the Battle of Sagami Bay, was “the first time U.S. Navy ships entered the outer reaches of Tokyo Bay since April 1939.”
While DesRon 61 never received a commendation for the action, Halsey himself signaled afterward, pointing out that the force rode heavy post-typhoon seas into the Bay with great effect:
“Commander Third Fleet notes with great satisfaction the success of this well-planned and executed attack.
Commander Destroyer Squadron 61 is to be congratulated on the sound judgment, initiative and aggressive spirit displayed in ‘beating the weather’ to drive this attack home at the very door of the Empire.
You are unpopular with the Emperor. Well done”
When the war ended on 15 August, De Haven and her squadron were stationed closer to the Japanese mainland than any other Allied surface ships in Halsey’s Third Fleet.
She was one of just 48 Allied (37 American) destroyers at anchor in Tokyo Bay during the Surrender Ceremony on 2 September 1945, with the ghost of the old DD-409, lost at Guadalcanal, no doubt present alongside.
There, she flew the two-star flag of RADM John F. Shafroth, ComBatRonTwo. De Haven anchored just 1,000 yards off Missouri, close enough to almost smell the ink on the documents.
De Haven sailed on 20 September for the States with four battleships and two other destroyers, loaded with “stateside” bound passengers, and arriving at San Francisco on 15 October after a brief stopover at Pearl Harbor.
USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) moored at San Diego, California, with two other destroyers, circa 1945-46. The middle ship is USS De Haven (DD-727). Courtesy of John Hummel, NH 89289
Between 1 February 1946 and 3 February 1947, De Haven served in the Western Pacific, joining the 7th Fleet in operations off the coast of China and patrolling off the Japanese coast.
De Haven received five battle stars for World War II service:
*Leyte Operation, Luzon attacks: 5-6, 13-14, 19-22 November and 14-16 December 1944 *Luzon Operation
-Luzon attacks — 6-7 January 1945
-Formosa attacks — 3-4, 9, 15, 21 January 1945
-China Coast attacks — 12 and 16 January 1945
-Nansei Shoto attacks — 22 January 1945 *Iwo Jima Operation
-Assault and occupation of Iwo Jima — 15 February – 4 March 1945
-Fifth Fleet raids against Honshu and the Nansei Shoto —15-16, 25 February, 1 March 1945 *Okinawa Gunto Operation
-Fifth and Third Fleet raids in support of Okinawa Gunto operations — 17 March – 11 June 1945 *Third Fleet Operations against Japan — 10 July – 15 August 1945
Four of the class were lost to enemy action during the war:
USS Meredith (DD-726) struck a mine on D-Day Plus 1, following supporting the landing at Omaha Beach, then was attacked and sunk on the way back to England.
USS Cooper (DD-695) was torpedoed and sunk on 3 December 1944 by the Japanese destroyer Take at Ormoc Bay.
On 12 April 1945, USS Mannert L. Abele (DD-733) was sunk by an Ohka (Baka) bomb during the Okinawa Campaign
USS Drexler (DD-741) met the same fate when she was sunk by a Japanese Kamikaze on 28 May 1945.
Korea!
NKPA (North Korean People’s Army) gains, 30 June–1 August 1950. Map from The Inchon-Seoul Operation, U.S. Marine Operations in Korea, 1950–53, Vol. II (NH 97052).
Based in Japan, on 26 June 1950, De Haven and her sister USS Mansfield (DD-728) were tasked to assist in the emergency evacuation of some 700 U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from Seoul, which would fall two days later.
Just four days after the North Korean People’s Army crossed the 38th Parallel, on 29 June, the light cruiser USS Juneau (CLAA 119), packing a dozen 5″38s, in company with De Haven, fired the first naval shore bombardment of the Korean War, hitting North Korean troop concentrations at Bokuku Ko. She then performed plane guard duties for the carrier USS Valley Forge and served as the commo link between the Pusan Perimeter and the tug USS Arikara (AT-98), the inshore landing control vessel.
Tasked with blockade work along the coast, De Haven bombarded an enemy battery near Pohang on 20 August, where, working with the heavy cruiser USS Toledo, they broke up a tank attack and destroyed artillery positions. De Haven then encountered a medium vessel and three small boats on 7 September, sinking all.
Soon, De Haven was tasked to support the amphibious counterpunch to Pusan, the Inchon Landings. The beach and Wolmi-do island were held by 2,000 Norks, including the 226th Marine Regiment, to which two companies of the 2d Battalion, 918th Coast Artillery Regiment were attached with their Soviet-manufactured 76mm guns.
Task Force Group Element 90.62, consisting of De Haven and her fellow DesRon 9 Sumner sisterships USS Gurke (DD-783), Mansfield, Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), Collett (DD-730), and Henderson (DD-785), was tasked with a high-risk mission to support the Inchon Landing.
The tin cans were ordered to steam up the 30-mile-long, treacherous, and poorly charted Flying Fish (So Sudo) Channel at high tide to bombard enemy positions at Wolmi-do and the waterfront of Inchon. They did this among floating mines (the destroyers sank 12 mines), the 918th’s 76mm field guns, and strafing runs from enemy Yaks.
While the destroyers were supported by a four-ship cruiser force filled with 8- and 6-inch guns — USS Rochester (CA-124), Toledo, HMS Jamaica (44), and HMS Kenya (14)— the deep draft cruisers could only go as far as Inchon’s outer harbor, some 14,000 yards offshore. All were provided with top cover by the planes of TF-77.
Inchon Invasion, September 1950. Wolmi-Do island under bombardment on 13 September 1950, two days before the landings at Inchon. Photographed from USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), one of whose 40mm gun mounts is in the foreground. Sowolmi-Do island, connected to Wolmi-Do by a causeway, is at the right, with Inchon beyond. 80-G-420044
Five U.S. Navy destroyers steam up the Inchon channel to bombard Wolmi-Do island on 13 September 1950, two days before the Inchon landings. Wolmi-Do is in the right center background, with smoke rising from air strikes. The ships are USS Mansfield (DD-728); USS DeHaven (DD-727); USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729); USS Collett (DD-730), and USS Gurke (DD-783). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-419905
Wolmi-do and Inchon. Drawing, colored pencil on paper, by Herbert C. Hahn, ca. 1951 (88-191-BB).
Derided as a “sitting duck” operation as it was to be done in daylight hours due to the tide pattern and in close proximity (within 800 yards) to shore (Collett, Gurke, and Swenson took hits from Korean 76mm batteries while De Haven got close enough to have received several .50 caliber hits but without serious damage), the destroyers nonetheless accomplished their mission and make it back out to sea before the tide plummeted and left them stranded on the mud.
As noted in the Marine Corps history of the landing:
It had been long since the Navy issued the historic order “Prepare to repel boarders!” But Admiral Higgins did not overlook the possibility of NKPA infantry swarming out over the mud flats to attack a disabled and grounded destroyer. And though he did not issue pikes and cutlasses, the crews of the Gurke, Henderson, Swanson, Collett, De Haven, and Mansfield were armed with grenades and Tommy guns for action at close quarters.
The total damage to the destroyers was structurally insignificant, however, and the combined casualties amounted to one man killed and eight wounded.
The force steamed back in on the 15th to land the Marines, following three squat LSMR rocket ships (No. 401, 403, and 404) that fired 1,000 of their fiery 5-inch bombardment salvos into the NKPA positions.
Soon, the destroyers were following up with everything they had. From L-minus 45 to L-minus 2, the four cruisers and six destroyers would dump no less than 2,845 8, 6, and 5-inch shells on Inchon and its outlying island, each ship concentrating on specifically assigned target areas.
From H-minus 180 to H-minus 5, the cruisers and destroyers were scheduled to blast their assigned targets with another 2,875 big gun shells, “smashing every landmark of tactical importance and starting fires that blazed across the whole waterfront.”
The Devil Dog-filled LCVPs and LSUs followed behind, covered by the 5-inch and 40mm fire from the destroyers. It was a resounding success, and by 0745, 3 bn/5th Marines radioed “Captured 45 prisoners. Meeting light resistance.”
The destroyers fired so many 5-inch shells in three days (1,700 on 13 September alone) that they needed to be re-barreled.
A worn-out 5″/38 gun barrel of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS De Haven (DD-727) is replaced by the destroyer tender USS Piedmont (AD-17), probably at Sasebo, Japan, circa 1951. All Hands archives.
The six “Sitting Ducks” destroyers of TE 90.62 that gave such yeoman service at Inchon, De Haven included, earned a collective Navy Unit Commendation:
“For outstanding heroism in action against enemy aggressor forces in Korea from 13 to 15 September 1950. Skillfully navigating the extremely difficult and hazardous approaches to enemy-held Inchon in advance of the initial assault against that fortress, Task Element 90.62 coolly entered the strongly fortified harbor and anchored within close range of hostile gun positions. Defying the deadly barrage of heavy enemy shore-battery fire delivered from a myriad of hidden gun emplacements scattered along the coastline, the gallant destroyers of this Element courageously proceeded to launch an accurate and crushing fire attack in the first of a series of well planned and brilliantly executed bombardments which culminated in the reduction of the port’s defenses and in successful landing of friendly forces at Inchon on 15 September 1950. Although sustaining several casualties and numerous hits from the roaring enemy shore batteries, these ships repeatedly refused to leave their assigned stations and boldly continued to return the heavy counter-fire of hostile guns until their scheduled time of withdrawal. Fully aware that with each successive entry into the treacherous channel, the peril of meeting increased resistance was greatly intensified, they braved the hazards of a hostile mine field, passed dangerously close to the enemy’s shore fortifications, and unleashed a furious bombardment which eventually neutralized the port defenses sufficiently to permit the successful amphibious landings. An aggressive and intrepid fighting unit, the daring officers and men of Task Element 90.62 achieved a splendid combat record which attests the teamwork, courage, and skill of the entire Destroyer Element and enhances the finest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
“Teamwork, Courage, and Skill “Men of Destroyer Division 91 crowd the foc’sle and superstructure of their ships in Sasebo, Japan, to receive their Navy Unit Commendations. During the presentation on the Mansfield, a crane crew in the background continues its task of installing new gun barrels on the De Haven. Streaks of red lead on the Collett and the Swenson in the foreground show the work that has occupied all the crews while in port. By coincidence, the famed ‘Sitting Duck’ destroyers are berthed in their numerical order: USS De Haven (DD-727), Mansfield (DD-728), Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), and Collett (DD-730).” Photograph and caption released by Commander Naval Forces, Far East, under date of 18 December 1951. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the “All Hands” collection at the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 97090.
Moving past Inchon, on 26 September, De Haven used her guns to disperse a North Korean unit ambushing ROK troops before going to assist the sister destroyer USS Brush (DD-745), which had struck a mine. She escorted the damaged ship back to Sasebo, arriving on the 30th.
On 6/7 October, De Haven provided NGFS for a raid by British Royal Marines from 41 (Independent) Commando on enemy railway tunnels and bridges on the east coast of Korea. The Commandos blew the railway tunnel at Kyongsong Man, less than 20 miles south of Chongjin.
Royal Marines of 41 Independent Commandos plant demolition charges on a railway line in Korea. NARA – 520790
De Haven was ordered back to Yokosuka and Pearl Harbor for refit on 23 October, wrapping her first very hectic Korean tour.
By 12 July 1951, she was back on the gunline/blockade duty off Korea, which she maintained until 1 February 1952.
Her third Korean tour ran from October 1952, when she clocked in as the flagship for patrols in the Chongjin-Songjin-Chaho area, through 20 March 1953, the latter stint including exchanging gunfire with Chinese batteries while supporting minesweeping operations off Wonsan. In 16 days off Wonson, De Haven and her partner destroyer, USS Moore, observed the impact of 316 incoming Chinese shells, some as close as 400 yards, and provided counterbattery fire in return.
De Haven earned a Navy Unit Commendation and six battle stars for Korean War service, bringing her constellation to 11 stars with her WWII service included.
North Korean Aggression — 27 June – 12 September 1950, and 18 September – 23 October 1950
Inchon Landing — 13-17 September 1950
U.S. Summer-Fall Offensive — 18 July – 2 November 1951 and 3-27 November 1951
U.S. Summer-Fall Offensive — 28 November 1951 – 25 January 1952
Korean Defense, Summer-Fall 1952 — 21 October – 30 November 1952
Third Korean Winter — 26 January 1953 – 20 March 1953
Test bed and space support
By the early 1950s, the Navy had decided that 21-inch anti-ship torpedo tubes as well as 40mm and 20mm guns were obsolete, so conversions to the Sumners saw these deleted and replaced with six twin 3″/50 radar-controlled DP mounts and a Hedgehog ASW system.
Post-Korea, De Haven spent the next 15 years in a much more peaceful Pacific than she had known in her first decade of service as a permanently deployed Yokosuka-based destroyer. Between alternating fleet exercises, “hearts and minds” port calls, and West Pac deployments (making six voyages to the Far East from 1953 through 1959 alone), she also had some out-of-the-ordinary taskings.
In 1958, she served as an experimental vessel for the budding Rocket Assist Torpedo program, which would later become ASROC. The idea at the time was that the RATs would launch from a platform built into a destroyer’s stern twin 5″/38 gun house.
USS De Haven (DD 727) is shown with the Rocket Assist Torpedo (RAT) launching system installed on the aft five-inch gun mount. Released July 25, 1958. 330-PS-9056 (USN 710203)
Close-up view of the Rocket Assist Torpedo (RAT) launching system installed on board USS De Haven (DD 727). “An added weapon to the anti-submarine warfare forces, the rocket-assisted torpedo weapon system consists of a rocket-propelled anti-submarine torpedo 13 ½ feet in length and weighing 450 pounds. The missile is propelled through the air by a powerful rocket. The spent rocket drops away, and the torpedo continues on its way. It deploys a parachute, which stabilizes its flight and carries it down to the water. On entering the water, the torpedo releases the parachute, sheds its nose cap, and starts to search for and attack the submarine. Released July 25, 1958.” 330-PS-9056 (USN 710204)
Then came Operation Hardtack I, a series of nearly three dozen nuclear tests from 28 April to 18 August 1958 at the Marshall Islands testing grounds (Bikini Atoll, Enewetak Atoll, etc). Besides testing a variety of devices and delivery methods, Hardtack also tested how close Navy ships and aircraft could be to these “tactical nukes” and, following washdown procedures, still operate.
De Haven was on hand for 27 of 35 blasts, some as close as 5,900 yards away. The highest TLD badge reading on De Haven was 1.76 R. In that blast, Hardtack Wahoo, De Haven suffered the following damage:
Engineering Spaces–Personnel were generally calm, though they considered it violent. In some cases, personnel were frightened.
Lower Sound Room–The shockwave sounded like water rushing by the ship. A shock wave shook the ship violently with a loud cracking noise. Personnel were somewhat frightened.
Bos’n Locker– Ship vibrated violently, first fast, then slow. Sounded like water pouring into the ship. Personnel were considerably frightened
From the 476-page Hardtack case file, declassified in 1984, De Haven’s participation in the project:
The test footage from Hardtack was only cleared and released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2017.
FRAM’d
In the early 1960s, the remaining Sumners were ordered converted under the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization II (FRAM II) program to make them more capable for Cold War threats. For these ships, most pushing 15 years on their hulls, it was an eight-month mid-life overhaul, with a $7 million per hull price tag.
Sumner class destroyer FRAM II profile, circa 1968. Click to big up
FRAM II included new radars (SPS-10 2D surface-search and SPS-40 long range air search), a fixed SQS-29 sonar dome on the keel under frame 25, which increased her depth by 6 feet, the installation of a Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH ASW drone system and hangar, and the addition of a winched SQA-8 variable depth sonar on her fantail.
Because the 369-foot Sumners did not have sufficient hull length, they did not receive the ASROC system, which was part of the more extensive FRAM I program that was applied to the longer (and slightly younger) 380-foot Gearing-class destroyers. Instead, they had to make do with two triple Mark 32 torpedo tubes for Mark 44 torpedoes and two single 21-inch tubes for Mark 37 torpedoes installed between the funnels. In exchange, they lost their legacy ASW gear (Hedgehog and depth charges) as well as their 3″/50 DP gun mounts.
On 1 February 1960, De Haven began her FRAM II modernization at San Francisco, which was completed in September.
USS De Haven (DD-727) underway in an undated photograph, circa 1960s. UA 466.02
Sumner class, 1960 Janes
Newly converted, De Haven left Long Beach on 3 October 1961 for a 985-day forward deployment to 7th Fleet at Yokosuka that saw her return to California 33 months later after steaming 213,576 miles. This included 325 days in Yokosuka, 18 port calls in seven other countries, five exercises (Red Wheel, Yellowbird, Big Dipper, Lone Eagle, and Mercury), four patrols along the line of contact between China and Taiwan, the ship’s first deployment to Vietnam providing support to ready amphibious assault force, an exotic five week tour as station ship Hong Kong, and working as a plane guard for 11 different carriers.
And that’s just the stuff that’s on the record.
In 1962, she was the first ship to take on the Navy’s DESOTO patrols. This was a response to the expanded claims on territorial waters made by China on Taiwan, a geopolitical dispute from the Cold War that is still relevant nowadays. Operating with a SIGINT team aboard under the classified and direct control of ComSeventhFleet, she earned the 197th, 198th, and 199th Serious Warnings from Red China over penetration of what Peking considered its territorial waters near the old German treaty port of Tsingtao. While eight later Desoto patrols took place along east and north China and up the/Korean coast as far as the Soviet. Gulf of Tartary, and then switched to the Gulf of Tonkin ala USS Maddox, the original code name was for “DEhaven Special Operations off TsingtaO.”
She also served on the NASA recovery squadron for Mercury-Atlas MA-9 (“Faith 7,” Major Gordon Cooper, USAF) in May 1963.
In July 1966, she was once again detailed to assist NASA as part of the Gemini-Titan 10 (GT-10) recovery crew, one of the secondary splashdown zone (No. 3, off Okinawa) vessels, should the spacecraft not make the primary recovery ship, the newly commissioned USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7). As it turned out, Guadalcanal easily recovered the record-setting Gemini X, the 16th crewed American flight, including Command Pilot, LCDR John W. Young, USN, and Pilot, Col. Michael Collins, USAF, as the capsule landed just 3 miles from the ‘phib, just off the Virginia coast.
A Navy frogman assists the Gemini 10 astronauts following splashdown at 4:07 p.m., 21 July 1966. Astronaut John W. Young (climbing from spacecraft), command pilot, is the only crew member seen in this view (NASA Photo ID: S66-42772); Astronaut John Young is hoisted from the water by a recovery helicopter from the prime recovery ship. Navy frogmen wait in life rafts below. (NASA Photo ID: S66-42773)
After weeks of training to recover a splashdown space ship on a mock-up “boilerplate,” and with an Army commo sergeant and a NASA tech aboard, but Gemini X landing as planned on the other side of the globe, De Haven instead had a 1911 shoot-ex off the helicopter hangar and returned to port.
Vietnam
No destroyer based in the Pacific in the 1960s got out of deployments to Southeast Asia.
We know that De Haven went at least five times, including April-December 1963, October 1966- March 1967, April-August 1968, October 1969-March 1970, and November 1970- April 1971.
This included inland brown water service on the Mekong River in September 1963 and on the Saigon River during early March 1967, as noted by the VA Agent Orange list.
As noted by her Veterans page:
During this period of time, De Haven served as a naval gunfire support unit in I, II, III, and IV corps and Rung Sat special areas, firing over 22,000 rounds in support of these operations and other noteworthy campaigns, including direct combat engagement with North Vietnamese artillery units on multiple occasions. De Haven’s assignments included search and rescue, radar picket duty, electronic countermeasures, Snoopy Drone operations, shore bombardment, and attack carrier operations from both the “Yankee” and “Dixie” Station staging areas. De Haven participated in the rescue of four downed pilots off the coast of North Vietnam.
6×5! USS DeHaven DD 727 giving fire support near DMZ, 1966
USS DeHaven, DD 727, 1967, Tonkin Gulf, Vietnam. “The U.S. Navy destroyer USS De Haven (DD-727) is returning to the U.S. after two months of gunfire support off South Vietnam.” McLean County Museum of History, Paul Purnell Collection
QH-50 Snoopy Drone operations aboard De Haven in the Gulf of Tonkin; August 14, 1967:
She earned a Navy Unit Commendation and Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation in August 1968.
USS De Haven (DD-727) underway off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, on 19 November 1970. Photographer: PH3 C.P. Weston. NH 107136
With the drawdown in Vietnam, De Haven was decommissioned and stricken on 3 December 1973, capping a very active 29-year career.
Back to Korea (under a different flag)
Transferred to the South Korean Navy two days after she was stricken from the NVR, De Haven was appropriately renamed ROKS Incheon (DD-98/918) and served under the flag of that country until 1993.
The battered 48-star ensign that flew from her mast during Typhoon Cobra in 1945 is at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine.
A plaque in the ship’s memory is at the Museum of the Pacific (Nimitz Museum) in Fredericksburg, Texas, dedicated by several veteran members of her crew. For the record, she suffered no casualties in WWII.
Her first skipper, John Dimmick, retired in 1959 as a rear admiral after 21 years of service and later became a high school history teacher in Arizona for almost two decades. He passed in 1987 at age 80.
Of De Haven’s 19 other commanders, at least two others earned stars, including her CDR William Heald Groverman Jr. (USNA ’32), who stood on her bridge on VJ Day, and CDR James Ward Montgomery (USNA ’44), who was her skipper during most of the 985-day West Pac deployment in 1961-63. Of note, Groverman had earned two Silver Stars in destroyers before he came to De Haven and only retired in 1971 after 43 years in the Navy. He had characterized De Haven as having a “good record” and being “a proud ship” in her WWII War History. He seemed like a man who would have known. They passed in 2011 and 1997, respectively.
She is remembered in a variety of maritime art.
De Haven. United States Destroyer at Wonsan. Drawing, Pencil on Paper; by Hugh Cabot; 1952; Framed Dimensions 25H X 30W. (88-187-W)
“Sudden Squall” Painting, Oil on Canvas; by R. G. Smith; 1969; “The USS de Haven (DD-727) provides anti-aircraft and anti-submarine protection for the carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) while on Yankee Station, an operational staging area just off the coast of North Vietnam. The winter monsoon in that region is characterized by consistent heavy clouds and rainfall that make operations difficult.” Framed Dimensions 52 1/2H X 64 1/2W. Accession #: 88-160-FI.
Finally, German scale model maker Wolfgang Wurm crafted a 1:192 diorama of De Haven in her 1945 livery at sea during Typhoon Cobra. It is on display on level 5 of the Internationales Maritimes Museum Hamburg.
The Navy, in its infinite wisdom, has not elected to name a third destroyer De Haven, which is a shame.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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First reaching IOC in 1960 (!) and seeing inaugural combat use in Vietnam just two years later, the 12-ton aluminum-hulled M113 is a Cold War stalwart.
11th ACR M113 in Vietnam, in its ACAV configuration
U.S. Army M-113 near the destroyed Panamanian Defense Force headquarters, Operation Just Cause, 21 December 1989
While “officially” replaced in front-line service with the U.S. Army by the Bradley and Stryker, the Pentagon only stopped buying the APC in 2007 and moved to phase it out in ancillary service (mortar carriers, ambulances, cargo carriers, smoke makers, OPFORs, etc.) with the very M113-ish but Bradley-derived BAE AMPV, a move that won’t materialize until the late 2020s.
These 11th ACR VIZ-MOD’ed OPFOR vehicles at the NTC aboard Fort Irwin started life as M113s.
Besides Vietnam, Panama, Desert Storm/Shield, Bosnia, and OIF/OEF, the M113 has proven itself in Ukraine, which has received over 500 of these surplus APCs in numerous variants from NATO as military aid, making it a common and unlikely favorite of the forces there.
It is considered reliable and fast, at least when compared to legacy Soviet-era MT/GT platforms.
Rafael is currently offering a series of upgrades for the old track, including new powerpacks, Trophy Active Protection Systems, Spike anti-tank guided missiles, Sampson Remote Weapon Stations, and advanced modular armor kits.
With some 80,000 of these durable machines produced over the past 65 years, and with them in service with 50~ countries around the globe, odds are they may outlive us all ,and the last M113 driver is yet to be born.
With the 100th anniversary of the Red Devils recently, these two great images from its bad old Crusader Days in Vietnam felt appropriate. While the F-8 was a gunfighter built for speed, when used as a low altitude strike aircraft, it took heavy losses.
Official caption “Poised for Action: An ordnance-laden F-8E Crusader jet of Marine All-Weather Fighter Squadron 232 [VMF (AW)-232] stands ready on the Marine Aircraft Group 11 [MAG-11] flight line (official USMC photo by T. J. Mercurio).” From the Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.
“On the Way: An F-8E Crusader jet of Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 232 [VMF (AW)-232] launches on a scramble mission in support of Marine ground forces south of Da Nang (official USMC photo by Staff Sergeant Bill Fisher).” From the Jonathan Abel Collection (COLL/3611), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections.
The above airframe, Bu150316, WT Red 17, was damaged by ground fire over South Vietnam on 4 May 4 1967. The plane made it to the South China Sea, where the pilot (Major Edward F. Townley) ejected and was rescued by a helicopter.
The squadron, flying the newer F-8E Crusader, which it received in August 1966, began full combat operations in December. The F-8E was similar to the F-8D but with higher-performance radar, which, being mounted in the nose section, changed the appearance slightly.
By the end of the month, VMF(AW)-232 had flown 571 sorties while delivering 418 tons of ordnance to enemy targets; four aircraft had received hits, and the Red Devil pilots had become familiar with the I and H Corps area as well as portions of the area north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
During the first 4 months of 1967, 19 more F-8Es were hit. In most cases, the damage was caused by a single small arms round and was easily repaired. Most importantly, no pilots were injured, but in May and June, the Red Devils were not quite as fortunate.
On 4 May, Major Edward F. Townley’s jet was hit as it circled over a suspected enemy position. Soon, the fighter was heading seaward, trailing fire and smoke. Major Townley was ejected and recovered uninjured.
On the 19th, the first Red Devil was killed in action, and the squadron lost its second aircraft. While flying a direct air support mission, Captain Harold J. Hellbach reported receiving fire over the target area. As the pilot turned toward the sea, the jet suddenly pitched nose up and then entered a dive, exploding when it hit the ground about 6 miles from the target area.
On 21 June, Major Charles L. Cronkrite, who, after his transfer from 232 to the group staff, continued flying with the Red Devils, was killed. After experiencing mechanical difficulties, Major Cronkrite ejected, and “it was suspected that the pilot was unconscious when he hit the water.”
July was a better month in that no one was killed or injured, but one aircraft was lost on the 2nd when Major Bruce A. Martin ejected after his plane was hit.
Two other F-8s were destroyed on 15 July as a result of an enemy rocket attack on Da Nang.
August marked the last month of the unit’s combat tour, and on the 30th, when the last plane landed, the Red Devils had amassed totals of 5,785 sorties, 7,273 flight hours, and 6,271 tons of ordnance expended.
The Red Devils received their first two-seater F-4B/J Phantoms on 19 September 1967 and, as VMFA-232, deployed with them back to Vietnam in March 1969.
U.S. Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, stand in formation during a centennial ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, Aug. 15, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samantha Devine) 250815-M-YL719-1079
The squadron was established as VF-3M on 1 September 1925, at NAS San Diego, and its long combat history began less than two years later when the squadron’s Boeing FB Hawk single-seat biplanes provided reconnaissance and air support to Gen. Smedley Butler’s 3rd Brigade in Teintsin. Their ersatz mud field was about 35 miles from the city, and the ground crew had to provide their own security against bandits and warlords. The squadron nonetheless logged 3,818 sorties in support of the 3rd Brigade over 18 months.
The “Red Devils,” later flying SBD dive bombers as VMSB-232, became the first flying squadron to land on Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field on 20 August 1942 during World War II and made history as part of the Cactus Air Force, earning two presidential citations during the war.
Wreckage of an SBD scout-bomber, still burning after it was destroyed by a Japanese air attack on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-14409
When it left Henderson two months later, only one of the original 15 Guadalcanal Red Devils was still walking.
Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron 232 Insignia, circa 1942, Guadalcanal, where they specialized in paving Iron Bottom Sound with Japanese ships/The drawing was done by I.F. Waldgovel in 1983.
Then came Korea (the squadron itself did not deploy, but all of its original pilots and 40 percent of its enlisted were sent overseas as replacements), two tours in Vietnam, numerous carrier deployments, 740 combat missions in Desert Storm, etc. It later became the first F-18 squadron to land in Afghanistan in 2010 during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Over the past century, the squadron has flown 15 different aircraft (including TBM Avengers, F6F Hellcats, F4U Corsairs, FJ Furys, F-8 Crusaders, and F-4 Phantoms) and participated in every major (and many minor) U.S. conflicts.
The legacy aircraft figure will soon be updated to 16, as it is slated to move to F-35Cs in the next few years.
A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet, serving as the color bird for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, is staged in the hangar during a centennial ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, Aug. 15, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Samantha Devine)
