USS Hemminger (DE-746)

USS Hemminger

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 honour 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.

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 the battle still raged. From 16 May to 20 June, she acted as part of a screen for a carrier group engaged in the 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 Eniwetokuntil 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 Turkish submarine 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).