USS Hemminger (DE-746)

Career (USA)
Name:	USS Hemminger
Namesake:	Cyril Franklin Hemminger
Builder:	Western Pipe and Steel Company, Los Angeles, California
Laid down:	8 May 1943
Launched:	12 September 1943
Commissioned:	30 May 1944
Decommissioned:	17 June 1946
Recommissioned:	1 December 1950
Decommissioned:	21 February 1958
Struck:	3 September 1974
Fate:	Loaned to Thailand, 22 July 1959
Career (Thailand)
Name:	HTMS Pin Klao (DE-1)
Acquired:	22 July 1959
Decommissioned:	30 September 2008
General characteristics
Class and type:	Cannon-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,240 long tons (1,260 t) standard 1,620 long tons (1,646 t) full
Length:	306 ft (93 m) o/a 300 ft (91 m) w/l
Beam:	36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft:	11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion:	4 × GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6,000 shp (4,474 kW), 2 screws
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range:	10,800 nmi (20,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers and 201 enlisted
Armament:	• 3 × single Mk.22 3"/50 caliber guns • 3 × twin 40 mm Mk.1 AA gun • 8 × 20 mm Mk.4 AA guns • 3 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes • 1 × Hedgehog Mk.10 anti-submarine mortar (144 rounds) • 8 × Mk.6 depth charge projectors • 2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks

USS Hemminger (DE-746) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. She was named in honor of Cyril Franklin Hemminger who was killed during the Battle of Savo Island.

The ship was launched on 12 September 1943 by the Western Pipe and Steel Company, San Francisco, California; sponsored by Mrs. Sue Frances Hemminger, widow; and commissioned on 30 May 1944, Lt. Comdr. J. R. Bodler, USNR, in command.

World War II Pacific Theatre operations

Shakedown completed, Hemminger reached Pearl Harbor in August 1944 to train submarines for war patrols. She also patrolled between Pearl and Eniwetok and worked in hunter-killer anti-submarine operations. On 28 February 1945 while on a HUK mission with Corregidor (CVE-58) and CortDiv 53, the destroyer escort was diverted to participate in the fruitless search for Lieutenant General Millard F. Harmon, Commander Army Air Forces Pacific, whose plane had disappeared. After patrol duty in the Marshall Islands, Hemminger sailed on 30 April to escort a resupply convoy to Okinawa, where battle still raged. From 16 May to 20 June, she acted as screen for a carrier group engaged in neutralization of Sakishima Gunto and supported ground forces on Okinawa as well as the air attack on Kyūshū.

Transfer to the Atlantic

Hemminger joined CortDiv 53 and Kassan Bay (CVE-69) for further hunter-killer patrol around Guam and Eniwetok until sailing for the Philippines on 27 September. Detached from the Pacific Fleet, Hemminger reached Norfolk, Virginia, on 2 December via Saipan, Pearl Harbor, San Diego, California, and the Panama Canal. Training out of Green Cove Springs, Florida, occupied Hemminger until she decommissioned there on 17 June 1946 and went into reserve.

Recommissioning for reserve training

After a period of duty with the reserve training program, Hemminger recommissioned at Norfolk, Virginia, on 1 December 1950. In the following years her career assumed a pattern of local operations along the coast punctuated by reserve training cruises to Canada and the Caribbean. One reserve cruise in June 1952 took Hemminger to Lisbon, Portugal, while others saw her at Rouen, France; Barranquilla, Colombia; Cadiz, Spain, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Hemminger also participated in several fleet exercises and worked with the Turkish submarine Little Creek, Virginia, on 23 November 1957 she reported to New York Naval Shipyard for inactivation. Hemminger decommissioned there on 21 February 1958 and joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She was loaned to Thailand on 22 July 1959 under the Military Assistance Program, and served the Royal Thai Navy as HTMS Pin Klao (DE-1) until her decommissioning on 30 September 2008.^[1]

Awards

	American Campaign Medal
	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
	World War II Victory Medal
	National Defense Service Medal

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

1. ^ "อาลัย ร.ล.ปิ่นเกล้า เรือครู ลูกประดู่ไทย" (in Thai), Kom Chad Luek, 21 July 2008 .

See also

• List of United States Navy ships
• World War II
• Destroyer escort

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Hemminger (DE-746) at NavSource Naval History