USS Hurst (DE-250) - U.S. Navy Career

U.S. Navy Career

Hurst was launched by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas, 14 April 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Jeanette Harris Hurst, widow of the ship's namesake; and commissioned 30 August 1943, Lt. Comdr. B. H. Brallier commanding.

Hurst departed Houston 3 September and after a short period of outfitting at Galveston, Texas, sailed 12 September for shakedown training off Bermuda. After returning briefly to Charleston, South Carolina, in November and screening a convoy to the Caribbean, Hurst arrived Norfolk, Virginia, 29 November 1943 to join Escort Division 20.

Assigned to protect ocean commerce from submarines, Hurst departed Norfolk with her first convoy 14 December 1943, stopped at Casablanca, and returned to New York 24 January 1944. She then conducted gunnery and antisubmarine warfare exercises in Casco Bay, Maine, before sailing with another convoy from New York 23 February. Enemy action was not the only hazard on such voyages as two days out of New York merchant vessels El Coston and Murfreesboro collided and sank during a heavy gale, the survivors being taken on board one of the escort ships. Hurst reached Lisahally, Northern Ireland, 5 March 1944, and one week later returned to New York with another convoy.

Hurst made no less than 10 more escort voyages from Boston, Massachusetts, or New York to ports in the United Kingdom before returning to New York on 11 June 1945. After her final Atlantic voyage, the destroyer escort sailed with her division for training in Chesapeake Bay and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Reassigned to the Pacific Fleet for these last months of the war, she transited the Panama Canal and sailed for Pearl Harbor via San Diego, California, arriving at the Hawaiian port on 26 July 1945. There the ship took part in exercises with submarines and departed 27 August for the Samoan Islands on 27 August. Arriving Pago Pago 25 September, Hurst spent the next weeks steaming among the small outlying islands of the Samoan, Fiji, and Society and other island groups, sending parties ashore to search for missing personnel and to investigate possible remaining enemy units. Completing this duty she departed Pago Pago 3 November 1945 and sailed for San Diego via Pearl Harbor. She arrived at San Diego on 23 November and sailed two days later for New York via the Panama Canal.

Hurst entered New York harbor 10 December 1945, sailed to Green Cove Springs, Florida, and was decommissioned there on 1 May 1946. She then entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs. In January 1947 Hurst was transferred to Orange, Texas. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1972. On 1 October 1973, Hurst was transferred to the Mexican Navy.