USS Henry R. Kenyon (DE-683)

USS "Henry R. Kenyon" (DE-683) was a "Buckley"-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy in World War II. The ship was named in honor of Ensign Henry R. Kenyon, Jr. (1916–1942), a naval aviator in squadron VT-8, who was killed in action in the Battle of Midway.

"Henry R. Kenyon" was launched by Bethlehem Steel Co.'s Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, on 30 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Verna Markham Kenyon, widow; and commissioned on 30 November 1943, Commander C. M. Lyons, Jr., in command.

After her shakedown cruise off Bermuda, "Henry R. Kenyon" returned to Boston. She was underway on 26 January 1944 on a tour of convoy escort duty in the Caribbean, a fertile field for German submarines. Returning to Boston again on 6 June, the ship underwent training in Casco Bay, Maine, and had her torpedo tubes replaced by additional antiaircraft guns. Assigned to an Atlantic escort group, she made five transatlantic voyages between 4 July 1944 and 30 August 1945, providing antisubmarine and antiaircraft protection in the Atlantic and eastern Mediterranean.

With the Battle of the Atlantic won, the destroyer escort proceeded on 15 May from Norfolk, Virginia through the Panama Canal and into the western Pacific theater. Arriving off Leyte on 7 July, she spent the remainder of the war escorting ships in the Philippines and to New Guinea and Okinawa. After the surrender of Japan in August, "Henry R. Kenyon" continued to operate in the Philippines and off the coast of Japan until departing Manila for the United States on 26 November.

Arriving at San Diego, California on 17 December, she remained in that port except for periodic training cruises until decommissioning on 3 February 1947. She joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet and berthed at Mare Island, Calif., later to be moved to Stockton, Calif. — still a part of the nation's "Reserve Sea Power".

"Henry R. Kenyon" was stricken from the Navy Register on 1 December 1969. The ship was sold on 22 October 1970. [K. Jack Bauer and Stephen S. Roberts, "Register of Ships of the U. S. Navy, 1775–1990", p. 231.]

References

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h5/henry_r_kenyon.htm history.navy.mil: USS "Henry R. Kenyon"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/683.htm navsource.org: USS "Henry R. Kenyon"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/escorts/de683.txt hazegray.org: USS "Henry R. Kenyon"]