USS Shields

	USS Shields (DD-596) in the 1960s
History
United States
Name	Shields
Namesake	Thomas Shields
Builder	Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
Laid down	10 August 1943
Launched	25 September 1944
Commissioned	8 February 1945
Decommissioned	1 July 1972
Stricken	1 July 1972
Fate	Transferred to Brazil, 1 July 1972
Brazil
Name	Maranhao
Acquired	1 July 1972
Stricken	1990
Fate	Scrapped in 1990
General characteristics
Class and type	Fletcher-class destroyer
Displacement	2,050 tons
Length	376 ft 6 in (114.76 m)
Beam	39 ft 8 in (12.09 m)
Draft	17 ft 9 in (5.41 m)
Propulsion	60,000 shp (45,000 kW); 2 propellers;
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	329
Armament	5 × 5 in (127 mm) guns; 4 × 40 mm AA guns; 4 × 20 mm AA guns; 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes ; 6 × depth charge projectors; 2 × depth charge tracks;

Last updated November 10, 2022

USS Shields (DD-596), was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy.

Namesake

Thomas Shields was born in New Castle, Delaware. He appointed midshipman on 2 January 1804. He served on USS Congress and USS Constitution until 1807 and was attached to the naval stations at Philadelphia and Baltimore. While aboard Constitution, he sustained an injury which rendered him physically incapable of performing all the duties required of a line officer. He requested appointment as Purser, which he received on 14 April 1809. He served on USS Nautilus until March 1811 when he was ordered to the New Orleans Naval Station. On 18 January 1815, following the Battle of New Orleans, he led a small expedition to harass the retreating British. He and his party succeeded in capturing numerous prisoners and destroyed several vessels. He remained at the New Orleans Naval Station until his death on 22 May 1827.

Construction and commissioning

The keel of the destroyer, Shields, was laid on 10 August 1943 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington. Sponsored by First Lieutenant Margaret Shields Farr, WAC, the great-granddaughter of Purser Shields, the destroyer was launched on 25 September 1944 and commissioned on 8 February 1945.

World War II

Shields' shakedown cruise, interrupted by a nine-day escort assignment with the battleship USS Iowa, lasted from 7 March to 18 April 1945. She departed Puget Sound on 6 May and, after several days of operations in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, shoved off for Eniwetok Atoll with convoy #PD-413-T. Her short period of combat service in World War II, 24 May – 15 August 1945, consisted almost entirely of escort duty between and patrol duty around Eniwetok, Ulithi, Leyte, Okinawa, and Borneo. Shields saw actual combat only once during the war; she shelled Japanese shore installations at Miri, Borneo, in support of Australian ground forces, on 26 June 1945.

Shields was at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on 15 August 1945 when she received orders from CINCPACAREA to "cease all offensive activity against the Japanese." After a short cruise to Leyte, Subic Bay, and back to Okinawa, she got underway to rendezvous with Task Group 78.1 (TG 78.1) and serve as escort to units of Transport Squadron 17 (Transron 17), at that time ferrying occupation troops to Jinsen, Korea. The occupation commenced without opposition; and, on 12 September, she steamed out of Jinsen with Task Unit 71.5.1 (TU 71.5.1) bound for the waters off northern China.

For most of the remainder of 1945, Shields remained in the area of the Gulf of Po Hai. Her primary assignment here was to participate in the naval demonstrations being conducted off the coast of northern China. Throughout this period, she also reconnoitered the unstable situation at the port of Chefoo. Her travels while operating off northern China took her to most of the major ports on the Gulf of Po Hai, including Chefoo, Chinwangto, Weihaiwei, Taku, Dairen, and Port Arthur.

Shields rounded out her first Far Eastern tour with a mission to escort the aircraft carriers USS Antietam and USS Boxer to the end of the Seventh Fleet's area of responsibility and patrol duty with the Yangtze River Patrol Force based at Shanghai. She returned to San Pedro Bay, California, on 19 February 1946, having stopped along the way at Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor. She remained on the west coast until being decommissioned and placed in reserve on 14 June 1946.

Korean War

Though decommissioned, Shields continued in an in-service status, participating in the reserve program. She was recommissioned into active service at the outbreak of the Korean War and recommissioned on 15 July 1950. Shields arrived in the Far East in September 1951 for the first of three Korean War tours. During this cruise, which lasted until February 1952, she patrolled the Korean coast in the area of the bombline and Kojo, providing fire support for the First ROK Corps and the First Marine Division. She participated in the assault on Kojo and provided harassing and interdiction fire. Her second Korean War tour, commencing on 1 November 1952, found her again cruising off the Korean coast near the bombline supporting the First ROK Corps and the Eighth Army. Later she took part in antisubmarine warfare exercises off the coasts of Japan and Okinawa and concluded the deployment training Chinese Nationalist naval forces at Taiwan. Stopping at Hong Kong and Japan, Shields returned to San Diego on 1 June 1953.

1954 – 1972

After six months on the west coast, she departed for her third Far Eastern cruise. Arriving off Korea on 11 February 1954, she operated there with TF 77 until being detached, on 21 February, to proceed to the Philippine Islands. Shields conducted operations out of Subic Bay during the months of March and April, patrolling the coast of Indochina with Carrier TG 70.2. On 7 May, she embarked for Yokosuka, Japan, stopping en route for a diplomatic representation at Hong Kong. After a week of tender upkeep at Yokosuka, Shields put to sea with TF 77 to conduct battle exercises. She returned to San Diego on 18 July 1954.

Between 18 July 1954 and 30 November 1963, Shields was deployed to WESTPAC seven times. When not assigned to the western Pacific, she engaged in normal destroyer activities out of her home port, San Diego. One of the highlights of this decade of Shields' career was her participation in the commemoration of the triumphant return of Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet" to San Francisco. Another important occasion was the award of the Battle Efficiency "E" for overall combat readiness in August 1960.

On 30 November 1963, Shields ceased operations as an active fleet unit and was assigned as a Naval Reserve Training ship, part of Reserve Destroyer Squadron 27. With her full-time crew cut more than 50%, she spent the next 8 years working with the Development and Training Command to maintain the combat efficiency of reservists. After a survey of Shields in March 1972, it was determined that the cost of her modernization would be prohibitive and that she was only of marginal value to the Navy without it. Consequently, Shields was decommissioned on 1 July 1972 and sold to the Brazilian Navy.

Shields was awarded the Korean Presidential Unit Citation (Korea) and three battle stars for service in the Korean War.

Brazilian service

She served as Maranhão until her scrapping in 1990.

Related Research Articles

USS Duncan (DD-874) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, the third named for Captain Silas Duncan USN (1788–1834). The ship was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 22 May 1944, launched on 27 October 1944 by Mrs. D. C. Thayer and commissioned on 25 February 1945. The ship was sunk in 1980.

USS McGinty (DE-365) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy.

USS Wiley (DD-597), was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy.

USS Haraden (DD-585), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Jonathan Haraden (1744–1803), a privateer of the American Revolutionary War.

USS Kane (DD-235/APD-18) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship named for Elisha Kent Kane.

USS Kidd (DD-661), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named after Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who died on the bridge of his flagship USS Arizona during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Kidd was the first US flag officer to die during World War II, and the first American admiral ever to be killed in action. A National Historic Landmark, she is now a museum ship, berthed on the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is the only surviving US destroyer still in her World War II configuration.

USS Metcalf (DD-595), was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy named for James Metcalf, who served on the schooner USS Enterprise during the First Barbary War.

USS Brush (DD-745), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Charles Brush, an American inventor and philanthropist.

USS Walton (DE-361) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy. It was named after Merrit Cecil Walton, a Marine Corps platoon sergeant with the U.S. 1st Marine Division, who died on Gavutu during the Battle of Guadalcanal and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for "extraordinary heroism".

USS Robert F. Keller (DE-419) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1943 to 1965. She was scrapped in 1974.

USS Impeccable (AM-320) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was originally ordered as HMS Brutus (BAM-7) for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, but was acquired and renamed by the United States Navy before construction began. She was commissioned in 1944 and served in the Pacific before being decommissioned in 1947. After the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, Impeccable was recommissioned in 1952 and served off Korea through 1952. She was decommissioned for the final time in October 1955 and placed in reserve. She was sold for scrapping in 1974.

USS Sheldrake (AM-62/AGS-19) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was named after the sheldrake duck. The ship earned four battle stars during World War II. She was converted to a survey ship and re-designated AGS-19 in 1952 and remained in commission until 1968. She was sold for scrap in 1971.

USS Spear (AM-322) was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

USS Fair (DE-35) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy.

USS Dionne (DE-261) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy during World War II. She was sent off into the Pacific Ocean to protect convoys and other ships from Japanese submarines and fighter aircraft. She performed escort and antisubmarine operations in dangerous battle areas and returned home with six battle stars, a high number for a ship of her type.

USS Tills (DE-748) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 and from 1950 to 1968. She was sunk as a target in 1969.

USS Maurice J. Manuel (DE-351) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.

USS Kenneth M. Willett (DE-354) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket.

USS Goss (DE-444) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 and from 1951 to 1958. She was scrapped in 1972.

USS Hanna (DE-449) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket. She returned home with five battle stars to her credit after she was reactivated for Korean War duty.

References

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

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.