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U.S.S. MILLS
(DE-383)Click to view crew list
USS MILLS (DE-383) - an Edsall-class destroyer escort
In Commission 1943 to 1970DE-383 Deployments - Major Events
Add a DE-383 Shellback Initiation | Add a DE-383 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MAR | 1943 | - | Keel Date: 26 MAR 1943 at Brown Shipbuilding Houston Texas | ||
MAY | 1943 | - | Launch Date: 26 MAY 1943 | ||
OCT | 1943 | - | Commissioned: 12 OCT 1943 | ||
JAN | 1958 | - | OCT | 1958 | Rotating 1 month duty on Atlantic radar picket stations |
JUL | 1958 | - | JUL | 1961 | |
OCT | 1958 | - | SEP | 1968 | Commisioning |
OCT | 1962 | - | OCT | 1962 | Cuban Missle Blockade |
SEP | 1966 | - | Shellback Initiation - 12 SEP 1966 - Atlantic Ocean | ||
SEP | 1966 | - | Shellback Initiation - 12 SEP 1966 - Pacific Ocean | ||
DEC | 1967 | - | DEC | 1967 | Antarctic Circle |
OCT | 1970 | - | Decommissioned: 27 OCT 1970 |
DE-383 General Specifications
Class: Edsall-class destroyer escort
Named for: Lloyd Jones Mills
Complement: 8 Officers and 201 Enlisted
Displacement: 1253 tons
Length: 306 feet
Beam: 36.58 feet
Flank Speed: 21 knots
Range: 9 100 Nautical Miles
Final Disposition:Sold for scrapping 12 March 1975
USS MILLS (DE-383)
Mills (DE‑383)
was laid down 26 March 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Tex.; launched
26 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. James E. Mills; and commissioned 12 October
1943, Lt. Comdr. J. S. Muzzy, USCG, in command.
After shakedown out of Bermuda, Mills trained
nucleus crews for frigates and destroyer escorts off Norfolk until 10 January
1944 when she began transatlantic convoy escort duty. On her second voyage into
the Mediterranean, Mills' convoy was attacked before dawn 1 April 1944, 56
miles west of Algiers by German torpedo bombers. SS Jarard Ingersoll, a
Liberty ship, was hit and set blazing. Mills picked up survivors who had
abandoned ship, and sent a boarding party to extinguish her fires. British tug Mindfull
and Mills then towed Jarard Ingersoll to Algiers.
By V‑E Day, for which she was moored at
Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mills had completed nine voyages on escort duty to
the Mediterranean, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France. Mills left
New York 30 May 1945 for the Panama Canal and Adak, Alaska, arriving 8 July.
She served there as weather station, plane guard, and escort between Alaskan
ports until sailing 20 August for occupation duty, arriving 9 September at
Ominato Ko, Honshu.
Briefly returning to Alaska 25 September to 17
November, Mills steamed west again to operate out of Taku and Tuington,
China, until 11 February 1946. Returning to the States via Pearl Harbor and the
Panama Canal, she arrived Charleston, S.C., 22 March, sailed 25 April for Green
Cove Springs, Fla., and decommissioned 14 June to go into reserve.
Eleven years later, after installation of
additional radar and electronic equipment and enlargement of her superstructure
at Boston Naval Shipyard, Mills was reclassified DER‑383 and
recommissioned 3 October 1957, Lt. Comdr. Joseph E. Feaster in command.
Assigned as a radar picket of the North American Continental Air Defense System
to deter surprise attack by locating and reporting aircraft headed toward North
America, Mills sailed 3 April 1958 from Newport, R.I., for Argentia,
Newfoundland to begin her first picket. She made 17 subsequent 3‑ to 4‑week
pickets on the barrier stretching from Newfoundland to the Azores through 28
July 1961, as well as one off the southeast coast of the United States.
Between 28 August 1961 and the end of 1963, Mills
served primarily on the new Greenland‑Iceland‑United Kingdom
Barrier designed to extend protection to the NATO allies.
In 1964, Mills was assigned to operation Deep
Freeze, the U.S. Naval Force supporting scientific research in Antarctica.
During the austral summer seasons of 1964‑65, and 1966‑67, and 1967‑68,
Mills took station to provide weather information and electronic navigational
aid to aircraft ferrying men and equipment between Christchurch, New Zealand,
and McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Each of these seasonal deployments required an 11,000‑mile
voyage via the Panama Canal to Dunedin, New Zealand, Mills' base of operations
with Deep Freeze. At the end of each deployment, Mills completed a round‑the‑world
cruise by returning to Newport via Suez. In 1965, when she did not serve with
Deep Freeze, Mills was underway schoolship off Florida. On 3 September 1968,
Mills became an operational Naval Reserve training ship at Baltimore, Md.
Mills received one battle star for World War II service.
[Note: The above USS MILLS (DE-383) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS MILLS (DE-383), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]