USS ''Wren'' (DD-568) was a
''Fletcher''-class destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
of the
United States Navy.
Namesake
Solomon Wren was born in 1780 in
Loudoun County, Virginia. He enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps at
Alexandria, Virginia on 1 April 1799. Assigned to the
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
, Wren rose in rank and, by the end of 1803, had been promoted to
sergeant
Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
.
In February 1804, Wren volunteered for the expedition to destroy the
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
, captured by the
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
tan
pirates on October 31, 1803 after grounding on an uncharted reef off Tripoli. Under the command of Lieutenant
Stephen Decatur, Jr.
Stephen Decatur Jr. (; January 5, 1779 – March 22, 1820) was an American naval officer and commodore. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the Unite ...
, Wren and 68 other sailors and marines entered Tripoli harbor on the night of February 16, in the
ketch and succeeded in setting fire to the former American ship during the
First Barbary War. On 3 August 1804 Wren was slightly wounded while assigned to ''
Gunboat No. 4'' during another attack on Tripoli. On 20 September he transferred to the frigate and returned home. He was detached from the Marine Corps on 24 March 1805 and no further record of his life has been found.
Construction and commissioning
''Wren'' was laid down on 24 April 1943 at
Seattle, Wash.
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
, by the
Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp.
The Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation (also operating as Todd Pacific) was an American corporation which built escort carriers, destroyers, cargo ships and auxiliaries for the United States Navy and United States Merchant Marine, merchant ...
;
launched on 29 January 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Jeanne F. Dockweiler; and
commissioned on 20 May 1944.
''Wren'' had three blade props instead of four, making her much faster than most ''Fletcher'' class destroyers: 39.9 knots instead of the 35 listed above which was the standard ''Fletcher'' speed.
[Per Raymond Collins BT2 USS ''Wren'' 1952-1956]
World War II
Following commissioning, ''Wren'' operated out of
San Diego, Calif. conducting shakedown training. In August, she reported for duty with the
Northern Pacific Force
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
in the
Aleutian Islands. Her duties there consisted largely of patrol and escort work between the islands of the Aleutian chain. She did, however, participate in four shore bombardment missions against the Japanese
Kuril Islands with Task Force 92 (TF 92) between November 1944 and April 1945. Her first action occurred on 21 November 1944 when she participated in the shelling of
Matsuwa. Her second and third bombardment missions took her to
Paramushiro on 5 January and 18 February 1945, respectively. Her final bombardment of the Kurils took place on 15 March 1945, and Matsuwa again served as the target.
On 19 April, she stood out of
Kulsk Bay, bound for
Hawaii. The destroyer arrived at
Pearl Harbor on the 25th but soon continued her voyage to the Western
Carolines. She stopped at
Ulithi Atoll until 17 May at which time she left the lagoon on her way to join in the six-week-old
Okinawa campaign. The ship served in the
Ryukyus from 21 May to 18 June, performing antisubmarine patrols and standing antiaircraft
radar picket watch. She came under air attack on several occasions but sustained no major hits while ending the careers of at least four of her airborne attackers.
Departing
Okinawa on 18 June, she arrived at
Leyte in the
Philippines three days later and remained there until 1 July when she joined units of
TF 38 for the final series of
carrier
Carrier may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos
* ''Carrier'' (board game), a South Pacific World War II board game
* ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 20 ...
-based aerial attacks on Japan. ''Wren'' spent the remaining weeks of the war at sea with TF 38 supporting the carriers while their planes struck the
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese homeland.
On 26 August, ''Wren'' entered
Tokyo Bay with other elements of the
3d Fleet to begin the occupation of Japan and to prepare for the formal surrender ceremony at which she was present on 2 September. She departed Japan that same day and, during the next month, visited
Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high.
...
and
Eniwetok. The warship returned to
Tokyo on 13 October for a visit of just over a month. She departed Japan on 18 November and arrived at
Oahu on the 28th. Resuming her voyage east on 1 December, she entered San Diego on the 7th. After a two-day visit, she headed—by way of the
Panama Canal—for the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was an important naval shipyard of the United States for almost two centuries.
Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street and Federal Street in what is now the Pennsport section of the cit ...
where she arrived on 23 December. After an inactivation overhaul at Philadelphia, ''Wren'' moved to
Charleston, S.C., late in March 1946. On 13 July 1946, the destroyer was placed out of commission at Charleston.
''Wren'' earned three
battle stars during
World War II.
1951 – 1963
A little over five years later, on 7 September 1951, ''Wren'' was placed back in commission at Charleston. For the next two years, she operated along the eastern seaboard and in the
West Indies. During the latter months of 1951, she conducted standardization and vibration tests under the auspices of the
Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was to ...
and its research facility at
Carderock, Md., the
David Taylor Model Basin. She returned to Charleston in December and, throughout 1952 and for the first eight months of 1953, performed normal operations and training in the western Atlantic.
In August 1953, ''Wren'' was reassigned to Destroyer Division 61 (DesDiv 61) for deployment to the Far East. She stood out of
Norfolk, Va. on 28 August and transited the Panama Canal on 2 September. After stops at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, and
Midway, she arrived in
Yokosuka on 3 October. A week later, she put to sea to join
Task Force 77 (TF 77) in the
Sea of Japan. The fast carriers conducted air operations there and in the
Yellow Sea, and ''Wren'' provided screen and plane-guard services to them between 10 October and 26 November. Following that assignment, she joined the
Australian carrier
HMAS ''Sydney'' and provided similar services until mid-December when she returned to Japan at Sasebo for the Christmas holidays.
The destroyer rejoined TF 77 on 3 January 1954 and cruised with the carriers until the 17th when she became a unit of TF 95. She served along the
Korean coast carrying out cease-fire surveillance missions with TF 95 until 1 February, when she returned to
Sasebo to prepare for the voyage home. She departed Japan on 11 February and, taking a westward route through the
Indian and
Atlantic Oceans, completed a
circumnavigation of the globe when she arrived in Norfolk on 9 April.
For the remainder of her active career, ''Wren'' operated out of Norfolk periodically making overseas deployments. Among her
2nd Fleet
The United States Second Fleet is a numbered fleet in the United States Navy responsible for the East Coast and North Atlantic Ocean. The Fleet was established following World War II. In September 2011, Second Fleet was deactivated in view ...
activities were midshipman summer cruises, some to northern
European ports and others to West Indian and American ports. She also served with the
6th Fleet in the
Mediterranean Sea on several occasions. Annual "Springboard" exercises took her to
Puerto Rico,
Cuba, and
Panama each spring. During her 1957 Mediterranean deployment, the ship served with the
Mid East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
Force in the Indian Ocean and participated in
Operation Crescent with units of the
Pakistani Navy.
''Wren'' appeared in the 1959 movie, ''
Operation Petticoat'' while on a port call to
Naval Station Key West
The U.S. Naval Station in Key West, Florida, United States is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official l ...
, Florida.
Transferred to the Naval Reserve Force, the Wren was later used by a
Naval Reserve unit in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
and based in
Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...
in the early 1960s. During this time, it supported Naval Reserve activities and made weekend
ASW training trips in the
Gulf of Mexico.
In December 1963, after almost a decade of duty with the Atlantic Fleet, ''Wren'' was placed out of commission, in reserve. She spent the next 11 years in the Reserve Fleet, berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Facility at Naval Station Philadelphia. Her name was struck from the
Navy list in December 1974 and on 22 October 1975, she was sold to the North American Smelting Co.,
Wilmington, Del., for scrapping.
In movies and television
The ship is seen in the movie ''
Operation Petticoat'' (1959). USS ''Wren'' also portrayed the destroyer that first communicates with
George Ray Tweed
George Ray Tweed (July 2, 1902 – January 16, 1989) was a decorated radioman in the United States Navy who served during World War II. He is most famous for evading Japanese capture for two years and seven months after the surrender of the U.S g ...
in the 1962 film ''
No Man is an Island''. She also appeared on the ''
Magnum, P.I.'' 1983 episode "Operation Silent Night" (archival film footage, since ''Wren'' had already been scrapped).
References
Sources
*
External links
navsource.org: USS ''Wren''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wren (DD-568)
World War II destroyers of the United States
Cold War destroyers of the United States
Ships built in Seattle
1944 ships
Fletcher-class destroyers of the United States Navy