USS Van Voorhis (DE-1028) - 1950s

1950s

Following shakedown training near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the summer, Van Voorhis reported at Newport, Rhode Island, for duty with Escort Squadron 14 (CortRon 14). The destroyer escort conducted operations along the east coast of North America until May 1958 when she sailed across the Atlantic for a cruise with the 6th Fleet. While operating with other ships of the 6th Fleet near Crete, she was ordered to the eastern end of the Mediterranean in mid-July to patrol off the Levantine coast. She supported the Marines who landed in Lebanon in response to President Camille Chamoun's request for help during a crisis precipitated by Arab nationalist factions in reaction to his administration's pro-Western policies and its adherence to the Eisenhower Doctrine. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's personal representative Robert D. Murphy helped the factions to negotiate a settlement which resulted in the election of General Fuad Chehab to the presidency on 31 July. President Chamoun's refusal to yield office before the expiration of his term kept the country in turmoil until late September. However, political conditions in Lebanon remained highly volatile, so American forces remained there until after General Chehab took office in September. During this period, Van Voorhis alternated normal 6th Fleet operations with patrols off Lebanon. Late in September, the warship departed the Mediterranean and returned to Newport early in October.