USS Vammen (DE-644) - World War II

World War II

Following commissioning, Vammen fitted out through mid-August 1944 and later conducted her shakedown out of San Diego, California, into late September before undergoing a post-shakedown availability at her builder's yard. Underway for Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 13 October, the new destroyer escort convoyed SS Phillipa to the Hawaiian Islands before reporting for duty to Commander, Service Force, Pacific Fleet, on 21 October.

For the remainder of October and all of November, the destroyer escort trained out of Pearl Harbor, operating in company with various submarines and aircraft carriers, perfecting techniques of anti-submarine warfare and escort duty. She then escorted SS Cushman Davis via Funafuti in the Ellice Islands to Espiritu Santo, before she steamed independently to Pearl Harbor, arriving at the Pacific Fleet's main base three days after Christmas 1944.

Vammen plane-guarded for Bataan (CVL-29) early in January 1945 before escorting the merchantman SS Exira to Eniwetok in the Marshalls from 9 to 16 January. While returning to Pearl Harbor, Vammen responded to a radio request for assistance from LST-598 which had an ill crewman. The destroyer escort rendezvoused with the landing ship at sea on 20 January and took the sick man on board. The following day, off Johnston Island, Vammen transferred the man to a hospital boat, sent from that outpost, for medical treatment ashore. The destroyer escort arrived back at Pearl Harbor on 23 January.

At the end of the month, Vammen sailed for the Marshall Islands, escorting Convoy PD-278-T, consisting of the attack transports Montrose (APA-212) and Mountrail (APA-213). Departing Pearl Harbor on 30 January, PD-278-T arrived at Eniwetok on 7 February. Vammen then headed for Hawaii the next day and, on the 10th, relieved Witter (DE-636) as escort for the escort carriers Kitkun Bay (CVE-71) and Salamaua (CVE-96) en route. They subsequently reached Pearl Harbor on 17 February.

The destroyer escort conducted one more convoy escort run to the Marshalls before she participated in her first major action. She shepherded PD-310-T, which consisted of the attack transports Meriwether (APA-203), Menard (APA-201), and Allendale (APA-127), from 22 February to 2 March, the day of their arrival at Eniwetok.

Three days later, she (as one of nine escorts) sortied with a 10-ship convoy bound for Ulithi and Kossol Roads. Detached on 9 March, she escorted the merchantman SS Westward Ho to Kossol Roads, and, two days later, departed the Palaus and proceeded to the Philippines in company with the landing ship Ozark (LSV-2) and Westward Ho, reaching Rizal, Leyte, on 13 March.

After patrolling the entrance to Leyte Gulf from 14 to 18 March, Vammen underwent an availability at San Pedro Bay alongside tender Markab (AD-21). With those repairs completed within a week's time, the destroyer escort sortied on 25 March, bound for Okinawa and her baptism of fire.