USS Waldron (DD-699) - Korean War

Korean War

Less than six weeks later, however, events in the Far East transpired which brought her back into active service before the end of the year. On 25 June, the forces of communist North Korea invaded the Republic of Korea to the south. The compelling need to send most available active combat ships to the Far East to support the United States and United Nations commitment to help the South Koreans meant that many others in reserve had to be reactivated to take their places. Accordingly, the decision to reactivate Waldron came on 17 August, just three months after her decommissioning.

On 20 November 1950, Waldron was recommissioned at Charleston, Comdr. James C. Shaw in command. She conducted shakedown training out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from December 1950 to March 1951. After post-shakedown availability at Charleston, she moved to her new home port, Norfolk, in August. In September, she departed Norfolk for a 10-week cruise to northern European waters before entering the Mediterranean for duty with the 6th Fleet. Early in February 1952, the destroyer returned to Norfolk and resumed 2nd Fleet operations from that base.

During the summer of 1952, Waldron voyaged to Europe once more with Naval Academy midshipmen embarked for their summer training cruise. She completed that voyage in September and returned to Atlantic Fleet duty out of Norfolk. In March 1953, the warship began an overhaul at the Charleston Naval Shipyard. She completed repairs in June and conducted refresher training in the Guantanamo Bay operating area before resuming normal operations out of Norfolk at the end of the month.

On 2 November, the destroyer departed Norfolk for a tour of duty in the Far East. She transited the Panama Canal on the 9th and continued her voyage west. She stopped at Pearl Harbor along the way and arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, on 9 December. Her duty in the Orient took her to Japanese and Korean ports, and she served as a unit of the United Nations security forces on patrol in the wake of the cessation of hostilities in Korea the previous summer. That assignment lasted until 7 April 1954, at which time she departed Sasebo for home. Steaming via Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean, Waldron completed a circumnavigation of the globe at Norfolk on 4 June.