Wiseman DE-667

Wiseman

(DE-667: dp. 1,400; 1. 306', b. 36'10", dr. 9'6" (mean), s. 24 k.; cpl. 186, a. 3 3", 4 1.1", 8 20mm. 2 dct., 8 dcp., 1 dcp. (hh.); cl. Buckley)

Wiseman (DE-667) was laid down on 26 July 1943 at Pittsburgh, Pa., by the Dravo Corp., launched on 6 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. June Holton, the widow of Lt. (jg.) Wiseman; and commissioned at Algiers, La., on 4 April 1944, Lt. W. B. McClaran, Jr., USNR, in command.

Following shakedown in the Bermuda area and postshakedown availability in the Boston Navy Yard, Wiseman departed Boston on 24 May 1944 on the first of three round-trip convoy escort missions that she conducted through the autumn of 1944. Subsequently converted to a floating power stationthe necessity for ship-to-shore electrical facilities having been proved during earlier phases of the Pacific warat the Charleston (S.C.) Navy Yard, Wiseman sailed for the Pacific on 11 January 1945.

Making port at Pearl Harbor on 3 February, the destroyer escort operated for a month in the Hawaiian Islands before setting sail for the Philippines on 3 March. Arriving at Manila on the 23d, Wiseman commenced furnishing power to that nearly demolished city on 13 April and, over the next five and one-half months, provided some 5,806,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

In addition, Wiseman's evaporators furnished 150,000 gallons of drinking water to Army facilities in the harbor area and to many small craft. Her radios were also utilized to a great extent. Placed at the disposal of the Navy's port director, the ship's communication outfit was used to handle harbor radio traffic until the director's equipment arrived and was installed ashore.

Following her vital service at Manila, Wiseman shifted to Guam, where she provided power for the Army dredge Harris (YM-25) for a period of two months. She then returned to the United States and was decommissioned at San Diego on 31 May 1944. She was inactivated there on 31 January 1947.

Recommissioned in the autumn of 1950, after the onset of the Korean War that June, Wisemanunder the command of Lt. Comdr. Jay W. Landrushed to Korea, reaching the port of Mason, near the mouth of the Naktong Biver, at the western anchor-point of the former beachhead at Pusan. As she had done at Manila in 1945, Wiseman now supplied electricity to a city unable to generate its own. Later, the ship provided comforts-of-home to units of the 1st Marine Division quartered on the nearby pier providing hot showers, cigarettes, and hot meals cooked in the ship's galley. The destroyer escort also provided instruction in seamanship, gunnery, radar, sonar, and damage control to 80 midshipmen from the Republic of Korea (ROK) Naval Academy and 120 ROK Navy enlisted men.

Late in 1951, Wiseman returned to the United States and underwent an extensive overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Calif., before she conducted refresher training out of San Diego through the spring and summer of 1952. The ship then sailed again for Korean waters, reaching the combat zone that autumn.

In her second Western Pacific (WestPac) deployment since recommissioning, Wiseman screened light carrier task forces off the west coast of Korea; carried out patrol assignments close inshore; blockaded and bombarded segments of the northeastern Korean coast, and provided antisubmarine screen and escort services for replenishment groups. Later in the deployment, she also participated in hunter-killer operations, trained in antisubmarine warfare (ASW) evolutions and served as division flagship during a goodwill call at Manila.

Over the next few years, Wiseman conducted four more WestPac deployments and spent the interludes between them in training out of San Diego and upkeep at Mare Island Naval Shipyard or the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. Upon occasion, she conducted Naval

Reserve training cruisesone taking her to the Hawaiian Islands. During the overseas deployments Wiseman operated with units of SEATO navies Australian, New Zealand, British, Philippine, Pakistani, and Thaiand visited ports from Australia to Japan. Upon completion of her sixth deployment, Wiseman was designated as a Group I Naval Reserve Training (NRT) ship. Accordingly, on 16 May 1959, the ship was decommissioned and turned over to the 11th Naval District. Lt. W. V. Powell was the first officer-incharge.

For the next two years, Wiseman operated out of San Diego on NRT duties. Every third weekend of the month, a reserve cruise took her to sea for periods of ASW training, and, during the summers, the destroyer escort made two-week reserve cruises.

However, in 1961, the Berlin crisis changed the veteran destroy escort's routine after the building of the Berlin Wall heightened tensions in August of that year. President John F. Kennedy ordered the activation of reserve unitsincluding the Selected Reserve Crew and NRT ships. Recommissioned on 2 October 1961, Lt. Comdr. C. V. Wilhoite, Jr., in command, Wiseman was immediately prepared for duty with the 7th Fleet. Since the repair and overhaul facilities at San Diego were overworked Wiseman was overhauled at Long Beach, spending tee pre-Christmas holidays in the Bethlehem shipyards there.

Deploying to WestPac again in January of 1962, Wiseman conducted patrol operations off the coast of the troubled country of Vietnam. She received a "well done" for her performance of duty and in March won commendation for giving medical aid to a fisherman with an infected leg on board a South Vietnamese fishing junk. Later that spring, the ship also visited Hong Kong, Subic Bay, and Japanese portsincluding Yokohama, where she hosted celebrations for Armed Forces Day on 19 and 20 May.

Returning to San Diego on 17 July, via Midway and Pearl Harbor, Wiseman was decommissioned and placed in service on 1 August, resuming her duties as NRT ship with the Group II Naval Reserve. Before the end of 1962, the ship was assigned to Reserve Destroyer Division 272 of Reserve Destroyer Squadron 27.

Placed in reserve but remaining in service, Wisemn~ was berthed at San Diego through the remainder of the 1960's as part of the Pacific Fleet's reserve units. Struck from the Navy list on 15 April 1973, the veteran of World War II and Korean service was subsequently scrapped.

Wiseman (DE-667) received six battle stars for her Korean War service.