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USS HENLEY DD-762

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Hull Number: DD-762

Launch Date: 04/08/1945

Commissioned Date: 10/08/1946

Decommissioned Date: 07/02/1973

Call Sign: NHXW

Voice Call Sign: SKETCH, SEACOAST (61-63), SPLASHY SPOOLS (1964), CALEB UNCLE


Class: ALLEN M. SUMNER

ALLEN M. SUMNER Class

Data for USS Allen M. Sumner (DD-692) as of 1945

Length Overall: 376’ 6"

Beam: 40’ 10"

Draft: 14’ 5"

Standard Displacement: 2,200 tons

Full Load Displacement: 3,315 tons

Fuel capacity: 3,293 barrels

Armament:

Six 5″/38 caliber guns
Two 40mm twin anti-aircraft mounts
Two 40mm quadruple anti-aircraft mounts
Two 21″ quintuple torpedo tubes

Complement:

20 Officers
325 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 General Electric Turbines: 60,000 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 34.2 knots

Namesake: JOHN DANDRIDGE HENLEY

JOHN DANDRIDGE HENLEY

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, July 2015

The third Henley was named for John D. Henley, brother of Captain Robert Henley, who was born in Williamsburg 25 February 1781. Commissioned midshipman 14 August 1799, Henley served in Chesapeake cruising in the West Indies until 1801. Departing Baltimore in the schooner Vixen 3 August 1803, he joined the Mediterranean Squadron for the war with Tripoli. An officer in Gunboat No. 6 under Lieutenant John Trippe, Henley participated in the attack on Tripoli 3 August 1804. Gunboat No. 6 ran alongside one of the enemy’s large boats and nine men and two officers, Trippe and Henley, stormed the Tripolitan before the gunboat fell away from the enemy. Although outnumbered three to one, the Americans fought so fiercely that within a few minutes the enemy struck their colors. Fourteen of the enemy had been killed and 22 were taken prisoner. Both Trippe and Henley were highly commended for their bravery in this action. Following completion of his tour in the Mediterranean in 1805, Henley made a merchant voyage to distant ports and then in September 1807, assumed command of Gunboat No. 20. Henley then served a tour in Washington and with the outbreak of war against the British was ordered to Charleston in June 1813 to command schooner Carolina. His ship was destroyed 27 December 1814 off New Orleans during a fierce struggle in which the few small warships played a decisive role in delaying the powerful British attack and bringing victory. For his part in the victory at New Orleans 8 January 1815 Henley was highly commended by General Andrew Jackson. Promoted to Captain 5 March 1817, Henley commanded John Adams in the West Indies and Congress in the Indian Ocean before taking command of Macedonian in the struggle against West Indian pirates in 1822. Captain Henley served as commandant of the Charleston and Baltimore stations an dthe Portsmouth Navy Yard, New Hampshire, 1826 to 1832. On 16 August 1832 he was given command of the West India Squadron with Vandalia as his flagship. Captain Henley died on board Vandalia in Havana, Cuba, 23 May 1835.


Disposition:

Last active Non-Fram DD. Stricken 7/2/1973. Broken up.


Ship History

USS HENLEY DD-762 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, July 2015

The third Henley (DD-762) was launched 8 April 1945 by Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco; sponsored by Mrs. George S. Wheaton, a descendant of Captain John D. Henley; and commissioned 8 October 1946, Comdr. Dwight L. Moody in command.

After shakedown in the Pacific, Henley headed east, reporting to the Sonar School at Key West 19 February 1947 for a 5-month tour of duty. She then reported to Norfolk, from which she sailed 28 July for her first Mediterranean cruise, which terminated 1 December at Boston. On her second tour in the Mediterranean, Henley patrolled with other U.N. Ships in the summer of 1948 as the Israeli-Arab dispute threatened to erupt into war. After a year of tactical training exercises and fleet maneuvers, Henley decommissioned at Charleston 15 March 1950. Less than 6 months later, with the outbreak of war in Korea, Henley went back in commission, rejoining the active fleet 23 September. Shakedown over, she sailed July 1951 for another tour with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Henley was detached from this duty and made a cruise to northern European ports, including a journey up the Seine to Rouen, before returning to Norfolk in February 1952.

In company with Destroyer Division 221, Henley departed Norfolk 25 September 1953 for a world cruise which was to take her 44,000 miles in 218 days. During this period, Henley sailed through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, participated in the filming of “The Bridges of Toko-Ri” off the Korean and Japanese coasts, operated with the 7th Fleet in Asian waters, and returned to the States via the Panama Canal and the Caribbean. Following years fell into a pattern for Henley as she alternated Mediterranean cruises with ASW and other tactical exercises off the East Coast and in the Caribbean. In 1959 she joined Task Force 47 for the Inland Seas Cruise to the Great Lakes through the newly completed St. Lawrence Seaway. Nearly 75,000 mid-westerners visited this representative of the “salt-water navy” in her 2-month cruise.

When a crisis erupted in the fall of 1962 over offensive missiles stationed in Cuba, Henley joined the fleet “quarantining” the island and reasserting America’s commitment to democracy as well as self-defense. Following this impressive demonstration of sea power, she then returned to a peacetime pattern of readiness operations.

On 1 October 1964, Henley became a Group I, Naval Reserve training ship assigned to the Anti-Submarine Warfare Component of the Naval Reserve. Following overhaul at Newport News, Va., and refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she began the first of numerous Naval Reserve training cruises out of Norfolk, Va., 1 May 1965. Manned by a nucleus crew, she cruised along the Atlantic Coast and into the Caribbean during the next 2 years and provided valuable service as an at-sea training platform for hundreds of Naval Reservists. Into mid-1967 she continued this vital duty both for officers and men of the Naval Reserve and the Nation. With her anticraft and shore bombardment capabilities, Henley maintains a state of readiness that would allow the ship to begin immediate operations with the Atlantic Fleet in any emergency.