USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800)

History
Laid down: 18 October 1943
Launched: 18 December 1943
Commissioned: 7 March 1944
Decommissioned: 24 May 1960
Struck: 1 August 1972
Fate: Sold for scrap, 4 March 1974
General characteristics
Displacement:
Length: 306 ft 0 in (93 m)
Beam: 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Draft: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:
  • GE turbo-electric drive
  • 12,000 shp (8.9 MW)
  • two propellers
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h)
Range: 4,940 nautical miles (9,150 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement: 15 officers, 198 men
Armament:

USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, named in honor of Ensign Jack W. Wilke (1919–42), a naval aviator in Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) who was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for his heroism in the Battle of Midway.

Jack W. Wilke was launched by Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Texas, 18 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Joe H. Wilke, mother of Ens. Wilke; and commissioned 7 March 1944, Lieutenant Commander Robert D. Lowther in command.

After a shakedown to the West Indies and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training at Bermuda, Jack W. Wilke spent six months on Atlantic convoy escort duty. The escort covered several convoys from American ports to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1944, making stops at Oran, Algeria; Bizerte, Tunis; Palermo, Sicily; and Naples, Italy. Later in the year, the warship escorted a convoy directly to Cherbourg, France. That last convoy escort mission was particularly nerve-racking owing to the late war German U-boat offensive in British waters. Following intelligence indications that next generation U-boats were planning to return to the western Atlantic, Wilke operated with a hunter-killer group in the Newfoundland–Nova Scotia area from December 1944 to May 1945. Upon the surrender of Germany, she moved to Norfolk to serve as a weather reporting and air-sea rescue vessel.

Jack W. Wilke sailed 4 June 1945 for Miami and operated as a sonar training ship there until 18 July. The warship then shifted to Philadelphia for an overhaul (and the installation of more anti-aircraft guns and improved sonar gear) in preparation for operations in the Pacific. With that mission cancelled by the end of the war in August 1945, the escort sailed to Port Everglades, Florida for three weeks of experimental ASW exercises. In September, she underwent a three-month overhaul at New York Navy Yard in preparation for her new role as an experimental antisubmarine ship. Jack W. Wilke sailed back to Florida on 7 January 1946 to commence operations out of Key West. During the years that followed, she carried out experiments in both tactics and sound equipment off Key West and during occasional cruises in the West Indies.

The ship's schedule of experimental operations was interrupted on New Year's Day 1959 by the triumph of Fidel Castro's forces in Cuba; and Jack W. Wilke steamed to Havana with other ships to help stabilize the situation and to protect American lives and property. During the remainder of the year, she operated off Key West and Norfolk on training operations, and took part in a special good-will cruise to Panama in October during a Caribbean training period.

Returning to Key West, the ship decommissioned 24 May 1960, and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia. The old escort was struck from the Navy list on 1 August 1972 and later sold for scrap to Union Metals & Alloys Corp., New York, on 4 March 1974.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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