Occupation of Japan
After Christmas at Yokosuka the squadron broke up into destroyer divisions for occupation duty. The Leary's division, Task Force 69 (TF 69), was composed of the Gearing-class destroyers USS Vesole, Dyess, and Bordelon. The division reported off the coast of Kure. After a few months, the division went back up towards Yokosuka. During exercises the faceplate on the MT 51 caved in, requiring a stay in Yokosuka for repairs. The rest of the division departed for Guam, with the Leary joining them later after repairs were complete.
Once in Guam, she joined the WESPAC Strike Force, Task Force 77, consisting of the aircraft carriers USS Bunker Hill and Antietam, the heavy cruiser Boston, the light cruisers Topeka and Duluth, and the rest of the destroyer division which included the Blue and three other destroyers. The task force usually operated out of Saipan, and occasionally out of Apra Harbor, Guam.
During this time, her division escorted the carriers to Hong Kong. After the rest of the task force joined up, they steamed to Tsingtao, China, with an overnight stay in Buckner Bay, Okinawa. During that stay the cruisers and destroyers carried liberty parties (sailors on leave) from the carriers to Shanghai.
The voyage home began at Tsingtai, China, 4 June 1946, with operations and stops en route. Leary moored at San Diego on 21 December 1946. She departed early January 1947 and later transited the Panama Canal to return to Norfolk and then Newport before beginning East Coast operations.
Leary's first Mediterranean deployment began in October 1945. Departing Newport 29 October, Leary joined the U.S. 6th Fleet and made visits to ports in Algeria, Greece, Italy, and the island of Rhodes. She returned home on 14 February 1948. These missions were Leary's routine in succeeding years.
In 1949, Leary's official designation was changed from DD-879 to DDR-879 to reflect her status as a radar picket destroyer.
With the exception of 1957, Leary spent most of her time on active duty with the 6th Fleet, including the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the Lebanon landings of 1958.
Read more about this topic: USS Leary (DD-879)
Famous quotes containing the words occupation of, occupation and/or japan:
“The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer’s day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)