USS Wagner#Conversion to radar picket ship
{{Short description|John C. Butler-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=USS Wagner (DER-539), circa in 1958 (NH 79811).jpg |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1945}} |Ship name= |Ship namesake= |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=8 November 1943 |Ship launched=27 December 1943 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=22 November 1955 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=March 1960 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck=1 November 1974 |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sunk as a target |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement={{cvt|1350|LT|0|lk=on}} |Ship length={{convert|306|ft|m|abbr=on}} (oa) |Ship beam={{convert|36|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draft={{convert|13|ft|4|in|m|abbr=on}} (max) |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=2 boilers, 2 geared steam turbines, 12,000 shp, 2 screws |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=24 knots |Ship range=6,000 nmi at 12 knots |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement=14 officers, 201 enlisted |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=2 × 5"/38 guns, 4 (2×2) 40 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns, 10 × 20 mm AA guns, 3 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 1 × Hedgehog, 8 × depth charge throwers, 2 × depth charge tracks |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
USS Wagner (DER-539) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in service the United States Navy from 1955 to 1960. She had been launched in 1943 but her construction was suspended until 1954. She was completed as a radar picket ship. After only five years of service she was laid up and later sunk as a target in 1975.
History
Wagner (DE-539) was laid down on 8 November 1943 at Boston, Massachusetts, by the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 27 December 1943 in a double ceremony with {{USS|Vandivier|DER-540|2}};{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wTi8mFT53IwC&pg=PA112 |title= The Navy of World War II, 1922-1947 |first= Paul |last= Silverstone |page= 112 |publisher= Routledge |year= 2012 |isbn= 9781135864729}} (though DANFS states 1944){{cite news |url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19431228&id=oqQgAAAAIBAJ&pg=4507,5517915&hl=en |title= 2 Destroyer Escorts Launched at Boston |date= 28 December 1943 |newspaper= The Lewiston Daily Sun |location= Lewiston, ME |agency= Associated Press}} and sponsored by Mrs. Alfred Thomas. The ship was named for Seaman second class William Daniel Wagner, a navy armed guard on SS Steel Navigator when the ship was sunk by German submarine U-610 on 19 October 1942.{{cite DANFS |url= http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/wagner.html |title= Wagner }}
Due to adjustments of wartime priorities and postwar cutbacks, construction of Wagner was suspended on 17 February 1947, while the ship was 61.5 percent complete. Towed to the Naval Industrial Reserve Shipyard, Boston, Massachusetts, the ship lay "mothballed" for the next seven years, until 1 July 1954.
= Conversion to radar picket ship =
Chosen for completion as a radar picket escort ship, Wagner was towed to the Boston Naval Shipyard (the renamed Boston Navy Yard), where construction was resumed. Re-designated DER-539, Wagner was commissioned on 22 November 1955.
She departed Boston on 4 January 1956 for the Caribbean and conducted shakedown out of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. Returning north, Wagner joined Escort Squadron 18 and operated out of Newport, Rhode Island. The ship conducted radar picket duty on the seaborne extension of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line—the Eastern Contiguous Radar Coverage System and the Atlantic Barrier—into late 1959. Primarily operating in the North Atlantic Ocean, Wagner interrupted these lonely vigils in the Atlantic Barrier patrol system with visits to U.S. East Coast ports and an occasional deployment to the warmer climes of the Caribbean for refresher training.
= Final deactivation =
As more sophisticated systems diminished the need for these seaborne patrols, Wagner was placed "in commission, in reserve," on 31 March 1960 and arrived at Sabine Pass, Texas, on 1 April to commence lay-up preparations. Decommissioned in June 1960, Wagner lay in the Atlantic Fleet Reserve until struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1974. She was subsequently slated for use as a target.
References
{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/wagner.html|http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/escorts/der539.htm}}
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External links
{{Commons category|USS Wagner (DER-539)}}
- {{navsource|06/539}}
{{John C. Butler class destroyer escort}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner}}
Category:John C. Butler-class destroyer escorts
Category:World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States