Henry R. Kenyon DE-683

Henry R. Kenyon

(DE-683: dp. 1,400- 1. 306' - b. 37' - dr. 9'5" - s. 24 k. - cpl.
186, a.3 3", 41.1', 820mm., 2dct., 8dcp.,1dcp. (h.h.)
3 21" tt.; cl. BuckIey)

Henry R. Kenyon (DE 683) was launched by Bethlehem Steel Co., Quincy, Mass., 30 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Verna Markham Kenyon, widow, and commissioned 30 November 1943, Comdr. C. M. Lyons, Jr., in command.

After her shakedown off Bermuda, Henry R. Kenyon returned to Boston. She was underway 26 January 1944 on a tour of convoy escort duty in the Caribbean, a fertile field for German submarines. Returning to Boston again 6 June, the ship underwent training in Casco Bay, Maine, and had her torpedo tubes replaced by additional antiaircraft guns. Assigned to an Atlantic escort group, she made five transatlantic voyages between 4 July 1944 and 30 August 1945, providing antisubmarine and antiaircraft protection in the Atlantic and eastern Mediterranean

With the Battle of the Atlantic won, the destroyer escort proceeded 15 May from Norfolk through the Panama Canal and into the western Pacific theater. Arriving off Leyte 7 July, she spent the remainder of the war escorting ships in the Philippines and to New Guinea and Okinawa. After the surrender of Japan in August, Henry R. Kenyon continued to operate in the Philippines and off the coast of Japan until departing Manila for the United States 26 November

Arriving San Diego 17 December, she remained in that port except for periodic training cruises until decommissioning 3 February 1947. She joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet and berthed at Mare Island, Calif., later to be moved to Stockton, Calif.—a part of the "Reserve Sea Power" essential to the security of our Nation.