Transfer To Pacific and Fate
After a round trip to Guam, escorting convoy OKG-7 to the Marianas, Nields took an active part in the occupation of the Ryukyus, as part of Task Force 53, along with tank landing ships (LSTs) engaged with units of the U.S. 10th Army in the uneventful disarming of Japanese positions on islands in Tokara Gunto and Amami Gunto. On 6 October, in the vicinity of Tokono Shima, Nields sent visit and search parties to Hibiki, Amami, and Kunasiri, finding them to be engaged in transporting former Japanese POWs back to their homeland. Three days later, while Nields and LST-553 lay anchored off Koniya Hakuchi, in the narrow strait between Amami-O-Shima and Kakeroma Shima, wind velocity reached 110 knots; Nields, piloting by radar, managed to stay in the middle of the stream but her consort went aground. In attempting to pass a line to LST-553, Nields lost her anchor. Two days later, with a Japanese midget submarine in tow, the destroyer returned to Okinawa for tender availability.
Detached from the 5th Fleet, Nields sailed for the United States on 31 October 1945 in company with DesRon 12, and arrived at San Diego on 21 November. Continuing on, she steamed to Charleston, South Carolina, reporting to the 16th Fleet on 8 December. She was decommissioned there on 25 March 1946.
Shifted later to the Inactive Ship Facility, Orange, Texas, Nields was ultimately deemed "unfit for further Naval service" and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 September 1970. Sold to the Southern Scrap Material Company, Limited, of New Orleans, Louisiana, on 8 May 1972, she began her final voyage astern of the tug Betty Smith on the afternoon of 25 May 1972. She was broken up for scrap subsequently.
Read more about this topic: USS Nields (DD-616)
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