-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Alvin C Cockrell was a destroyer Escort
The USS Alvin C. Cockrell (DE-366) was laid down on 1 May 1944 at Orange, Texas, by the Consolidated Steel Corp.; launched on 27 June 1944; sponsored by Mrs. James A. Perkins, the sister of the late 1st Lt. Cockrell; and commissioned on 7 August 1944 at her builder's yard, Lt. Comdr. Merrill M. Sanford, USNR, in command.
She served in the South Pacific during WWII. The final month of the war, August 1945
On 5 August, however, while operating in the Peleliu-Angaur antisubmarine She received orders to proceed at full speed to the scene of the sinking of the heavy cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35). She arrived in the area at 0600, and commenced a search .
With each ship proceeding to cover an assigned sector, she began finding grim evidence of the tragedy that had befallen the cruiser. She sighted two empty rubber rafts at 1007, and recovered an unidentified body at 1115, quickly burying it at sea. A half-hour later, at 1145, the ship spotted several other corpses—six of which were given a burial soon thereafter. Only one of the six was identifiable, and the advanced state of decomposition in all indicated that they had been dead for several days.
Many had life jackets, and a few had clothing. The destroyer escort sighted very little debris or wreckage by that point, and "no signs of any live survivors." Eventually ordered to break off the search and return to her regular operating base, she departed the area at 0622 on 6 August to return to Peleliu.
Relieved from duty with the 5th Fleet on 2 January 1946, she sailed for the United States. Decommissioned and placed in reserve at San Diego on 2 July 1946, she remained inactive until returned to active duty with the buildup of the fleet during the Korean War. Recommissioned on 27 June 1951, Lt. Comdr. Thomas R. Pearson in command.
Deploying to the western Pacific (WestPac) for the first time since the end of World War II, Alvin C. Cockrell sailed for the Far East in August 1953. She served as station ship at Hong Kong, for three months before she proceeded to the Philippine Islands and visited Sangley Point and Subic Bay. She also visited Bangkok, Thailand, during this deployment, and operated for two weeks in the Gulf of Siam, training sailors from the Thai Armed Forces Academy at Sattahip, in gunnery and engineering. Returning to San Diego by way of Guam, Midway, and Pearl Harbor, the destroyer escort reached San Diego in March 1954, and operated locally into the autumn of 1955. Her regular overhaul at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, conducted during March and April 1955, punctuated that period of local operations, and saw the ship being converted for service as a flagship.
Deploying to the Far East again in October 1955, Alvin C.Cockrell was designated flagship of CortRon 3 in December 1955
For the first six months of 1958, the destroyer escort deployed to the central and western Pacific; her ports of call included Yokosuka, Hong Kong, and Subic Bay. She participated in a joint Air Force-Navy "Handclasp" project, a 7th Fleet weapons demonstration for Asian political and military leaders, and spent two of the six months in the Carolines, Marianas, and Bonins, on surveillance patrol. She returned to San Diego in mid-June 1958, via Midway and Pearl Harbor as in previous deployments.
After she had brought her fourth WestPac deployment to a close, Alvin C. Cockrell was assigned Naval Reserve Training (NRT) ship duties with Reserve Escort Squadron 1, on 1 July 1958, homeported at San Francisco. Decommissioned on 17 January 1959, the ship was designated a Group II destroyer escort in the ASW surface component of the selected reserve and remained "in service" to provide underway training for her own selected reserve crew of inactive reserve officers and men. Two active duty officers and 36 enlisted men maintained the ship, and on the third weekend of each month, a reserve crew of 161 officers and men would embark to steam and train their own ship. For two weeks each year the reserve crew would embark, and, integrated with the active duty men, would carry out a two week reserve training cruise. In May 1959, the ship moved to her new home port, the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Training Center at Alameda, Calif.
Alvin C. Cockrell was recommissioned on 1 October 1961. After the ship underwent a routine overhaul, her home port was changed to Pearl Harbor. She sailed for Hawaii on 2 January 1962.
Increased tensions in the Far East soon resulted in sailing for that area of the globe. She sailed for Danang, Republic of Vietnam, for operations with units of the South Vietnamese Navy.
She was decommissioned on 1 August 1962, reverting to "in service" status as a Group II NRT ship. She remained in that status for the rest of her career. Decommissioned on 20 September 1968, Alvin C. Cockrell was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 23 September 1968. Her hulk was subsequently utilized in weapons testing, and she was sunk on 19 September 1969.
Fisherman served on the Cockrell.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)