USS Hemminger

USS Hemminger 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.

With the ship's 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 antisubmarine 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.

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.

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 Gur in August 1954. Departing 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 serves the Royal Thai Navy as HTMS Pin Klao (DE-1/DE-3/413).

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

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