This “Remember a Ship Sunday,” we look back at USS RAMSDEN DE-382, commissioned 71 years ago today. She honored Marvin Lee Ramsden, who reported for duty in USS LEXINGTON CV-2, on 8 October 1936. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, on 8 May 1942, Coxswain Ramsden remained at his exposed station. Despite having been wounded, he continued to operate a range finder in the face of intense enemy strafing and dive-bombing attacks, until he died. For his gallant and intrepid conduct, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. His namesake was an EDSALL class DE whose keel was laid down on 26 March 1943 by the Brown Shipbuilding Corp., in Houston, Texas. She was launched 24 May 1943, and sponsored by Ramsden’s mother. Coast Guard manned, she was commissioned 19 October 1943, with Lt. Comdr. J. E. Madacey, USCG, in command. Following shakedown off Bermuda, RAMSDEN was assigned to CortDiv 23 and steamed to New York, where she began escorting trans Atlantic convoys. She departed New York for Bizerte with UGS-36, on 10 March. Steaming first to Norfolk, where 62 more ships joined the 36 vessels from New York, the convoy headed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. Before dawn on 1 April 1944, Nazi bombers and torpedo planes, led in by flare-dropping scouts, attacked the Allied ships. In 15 minutes, 0405 to 0420, the Luftwaffe damaged one merchantman and lost five aircraft, one to RAMSDEN’s guns. Two days later, the convoy reached Tunisia and on the 11th got underway for New York, arriving 2 May. RAMSDEN shifted to the North Atlantic convoy lanes, and, during the remainder of the war in Europe, escorted seven convoys to the United Kingdom and France. With the collapse of Germany, she was transferred, with her division, to the Pacific. Transiting the Panama Canal 18 June 1945, she called at San Francisco, and then continued on to Adak, arriving 8 July. On the 15th, she shifted to Attu, where she operated on plane guard duty for the remainder of World War II. Occupation duty took her to Honshu, Okinawa. Manila, Shanghai Ketchikan, and Tsingtao. On 11 February 1946, she sailed for the eastern coast of the United States. Arriving at Charleston on 22 March, RAMSDEN then steamed to Jacksonville Fla., on 24 April, and then shifted to Green Cove Springs. There she was decommissioned on 13 June 1946, and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Ordered activated after the outbreak of war in Korea, RAMSDEN was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard and recommissioned on 28 March 1952, with the Coast Guard hull designation WDE-482. Reporting for duty 1 April, she headed west to Honolulu, where she operated on air-sea rescue patrol duty. On that duty for the next 2 years, she guarded the increased Pacific air traffic along routes in the Pacific. Following the cessation of hostilities in Korea, and the subsequent decrease in air traffic, she decommissioned at San Diego on 10 April 1954. Then she reentered the Navys Reserve Fleet 28 June 1954. Ordered reactivated and converted to an escort radar picket ship in 1956, the escort arrived at Long Beach 19 October for conversion. On 1 November she was redesignated DER-382. Recommissioned 10 December 1957, she underwent shakedown and training off the west coast. In March 1958, she returned to the Hawaiian Islands, where she was once again homeported. Based at Pearl Harbor, she operated on barrier patrol duty stations from Midway to the Aleutians until the spring of 1960, when she returned to the west coast for inactivation. Decommissioned on 23 June 1960, she again entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet until 01 August 1974, when she was struck from the register and was sunk as target. Here are the three incarnations of USS RAMSDEN.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 23:53:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015