USS Whitehurst (DE-634) - Korean War

Korean War

Reactivated in the summer of 1950 as a result of the outbreak of war in Korea, Whitehurst was recommissioned on 1 September 1950 and soon sailed for the Far East. The destroyer escort earned three battle stars for her activities during the Korean War between 25 February and 19 September 1951.

She remained in the Far East until 1955, when she returned to Pearl Harbor via Midway. After working locally out of Pearl Harbor for a year, the destroyer escort operated between Hawaii and Guam into 1956. Early in that year, she broadened her duties and itinerary by performing surveillance duties among the islands and atolls assigned the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. She also performed search and rescue missions in the Marianas and Carolines, periodically stopping at various islands to provide medical care for the natives and to record population changes.

Departing Guam on 22 February for Yokosuka, Japan, the ship sailed via the northern Marianas, the Bonins, and the Volcano Islands. She spent two weeks in Japanese waters before returning to Guam on 17 March. Returning to the Central Carolines for patrol duties in early April 1956, Whitehurst stood by a damaged seaplane at the island of Lamotrek for two weeks before she returned to Guam on 14 April, en route to Pearl Harbor.

After a period of local operations out of Pearl Harbor, Whitehurst headed back to the Far East and touched at Guam, Formosa, Hong Kong, and Sasebo, Japan, before representing the United States Navy at the graduation ceremonies of the Republic of Korea Naval Academy on 10 April. She returned to Sasebo before shifting to Yokosuka en route to Midway and Hawaii.