Post-war Service
Decommissioned on 12 June 1946, Saufley remained in the Reserve Fleet for just over three years. Redesignated DDE-465 on 15 March 1949, she was recommissioned on 15 December 1949 and assigned to Escort Destroyer Squadron (CortDesRon) 2, Atlantic Fleet. Within a year, she had participated in two search and rescue operations. The first, in June 1950, was the rescue of 36 passengers from a downed commercial airliner on a Puerto Rico-New York run. The second, in October, was the rescue of a Navy TBM pilot assigned to the escort aircraft carrier, USS Palau.
On 1 January 1951, the escort destroyer was reclassified an Experimental Escort Destroyer, EDDE-465, and assigned to experimental work under the control of Commander, Operational Development Force. A unit of Destroyer Division 601 (DesDiv 601), she was home ported at Naval Station Key West, Florida. For the next twelve years, was primarily engaged in testing and evaluating sonar equipment and antisubmarine warfare weapons.
On 1 July 1962, Saufley was redesignated a general purpose destroyer and regained her original designation of DD-465. At the end of that month, she participated in the filming of the movie PT 109. In September, she resumed test and evaluation work. In late October, she was placed on standby, and, after the proclamation of the Cuban Quarantine in the Cuban Missile Crisis, she commenced patrols off the coast of Florida. She continued that duty until 20 November, then returned to NAVSTA Key West. On 26 November, she participated in a review of the Quarantine Force by President John F. Kennedy.
For the next two years, Saufley continued her experimental projects, interrupting those operations only for scheduled exercises, sonar school ship duties; and, in the spring of 1963, assistance in the search for the nuclear powered attack submarine USS Thresher.
Ordered back to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia in the fall of 1964, Saufley was decommissioned on 29 January 1965 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1966. Her use as an experimental ship, however, continued. In 1967, instruments and gauges to register strain and stress of successive explosions were installed, and, on 20 February 1968, as a result of tests, she was sunk off Key West.
Saufley earned 16 battle stars during World War II, placing her among the highest decorated US ships of the Second World War.
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