USS Lansing (DE-388)

USS "Lansing" (DE-388), a "Edsall"-class destroyer escort, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Aviation Machinist Mate First Class William Henry Lansing. Her keel was laid downon 15 May 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding of Houston, Texas. She was launched on 2 August 1943 sponsored by Mrs. Alberta L. Lansing, widow of AD1 Lansing, and commissioned on 10 November 1943 with Lieutenant Commander S. R. Sands in command.

After shakedown, "Lansing" departed Norfolk, Virginia, on 13 February 1944 on her first transatlantic cruise escorting convoy UGS 33 bound to Casablanca, the first of eight voyages to north African ports protecting convoys loaded with vital war material. During "Lansing"’s second cruise, a convoy ship "G. S. Walden" was damaged by a torpedo fired from a U-boat on 12 May.

Arriving Boston, Massachusetts, on 12 June 1945 from her final transatlantic mission, the destroyer escort prepared for service in the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal 2 August and was en route to Pearl Harbor when she received news of the Japanese surrender. "Lansing" returned New York 26 September, and decommissioned at Green Cove Springs 25 April 1946, joining the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

She was transferred to the Coast Guard in June 1952. Upon her return to the Navy in 1954 "Lansing" was converted to a radar picket escort ship and given the hull classification symbol DER-388 21 October 1955. She was recommissioned 18 December 1956 with Lieutenant Commander G. N. DeBuer in command.

"Lansing" joined the Pacific Barrier 2 June 1957 for operations out of Pearl Harbor as a radar picket. From 1957 until 1965 she made regular patrols, ready to provide early warning in the event of an enemy attack. "Lansing" participated in the atomic tests at Johnston Island in the summer of 1958 and again in the fall of 1962. She sailed on Far East cruises during 1961 and 1963 and engaged in search operations for a downed Air Force Globemaster in January 1964.

Arriving Bremerton, Washington, 22 February 1965, "Lansing" decommissioned there 21 May and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

A fictional submarine USS "Lansing" (SSN-795), presumably a "LA"-class boatnamed for Lansing, Michigan, is the setting of the 2001 made-for-TV movie "Danger Beneath the Sea". No submarine has ever been named USS "Lansing", and as of 2006 none has been given the hull number 795.

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