Heyliger DE-510

Heyliger

(DE5-10: dp. 1,350; 1. 306'; h. 36'8"; d,r. 9'5"; s. 24 k.;
cpl. 186; a. 2 5", 4 40mm., 16 20mm.; cl. John, C. Butler)

Heyliger (DE~510) was launched 6 August 1944 by the Federal Shipbuilding Drydock Co, Kearny, N.J.: sponsored by Mrs. Augusta Foss, mother of Private First Class Heyliger, and commissioned at New York 24 March 1945, Lt. Comdr. Arthur F. Chase, USNR, in command.

After shakedown in the Caribbean, Heyliger sailed from Norfolk for the Pacific 25 May, reaching Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and San Diego 19 June. The new destroyer-escort spent 6 weeks at Pearl for various training exercises and then departed for Guam 14 August, the day before Japan agreed to unconditional surrender. Heyliger reached Guam 30 August and then continued on to Rota Island in the Marianas, where Colonel H. H. Stent, USM'O, accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrison 2 September. From 19 September to 21 October Heyliger searched through the Carolines to find Allied survivors and Japanese soldiers, as well as examining conditions in the islands. After a stint of patrol and air-sea rescue operations, Heyliger returned to the States 22 January 1946 and decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla., 20 June.

Heyliger recommissioned at Green Cove Springs 28 March 1951 and reported to her new home port, Brooklyn. From there she participated in tactical exercises and fleet maneuvers along the American coast and in Caribbean waters. Antisubmarine work. her main mission, took Heyliger to European waters 13 June-10 July 1953 and again 17 June-15 July 1955. ~She decommissioned and was placed in reserve at Bayonne, N.J., 2 January 1958 and later transferred to Philadelphia. Heyliger was struck from the Navy List 1 May 1966 and sunk as a target by the Atlantic Fleet.