History
Ingersoll conducted shakedown training off the coast of Bermuda before sailing back to the United States. On 29 November 1943, Ingersoll sailed through the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii where she joined Task Force 58 on 21 December 1943 in preparation for the invasion of the Marshall Islands. Ingersoll provided offshore fire support for the invasion, which was ultimately a success.
The ship participated in a number of operations in 1944, most notable of which was the invasion of Peleliu, where she took part in the offshore bombardment on 7 September 1944. The next day she accompanied Task Force 38, which launched attacks on the Japanese forces on the island of Formosa and in the Philippines.
The Japanese forces met Task Force 38 to repel the invasion of the Philippines in late October 1944. The ensuing battle would come to be known as the Battle for Leyte Gulf.
Between Leyte Gulf and late 1945, Ingersoll would participate in numerous battles and skirmishes, return to Pearl Harbor for repairs, and assist in offshore patrols of occupied Japan, before she returned to Boston, Massachusetts on 17 January 1946. She then sailed to Charleston, South Carolina on 4 April 1946 and was decommissioned 19 July 1946. Ingersoll then joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Ingersoll was recommissioned at Charleston on 4 May 1951 to support the United Nations mission on the Korean Peninsula. She received several modifications and upgrades and underwent sea-trials in 1953. She cooperated with several NATO task forces and supported the armistice before returning to Fall River, Massachusetts on 18 March 1954.
She then underwent further modifications before rejoining the Pacific Fleet under the 7th task force from 25 June to 18 December 1958. After some additional training and exercises, Ingersoll screened transport ships off the South Vietnam coast in 1960.
The ship was deployed to the same region numerous times before her final deployment in 1968 to the Vietnamese coast where her task was to interdict materiel and supplies headed from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. This would mark the last time her guns were fired in anger.
For service during the Korean and Vietnam eras, Ingersoll and eligible personnel earned the Europe bar for the previously awarded Navy Occupation Medal, the China Service Medal, the National Defense Medal (with one bronze star - two awards, Korea and Vietnam), the Korean Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal (original award with three battle stars), the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, the RVN Gallantry Cross, the United Nations Service Medal (Korea), and the RVN Campaign Medal.
Ingersoll was decommissioned on 20 January 1970 at the U.S. Naval Station in San Diego.
She was sunk as a target at 33°34′8″N 118°34′7″W / 33.56889°N 118.56861°W / 33.56889; -118.56861 on 19 May 1974.
Read more about this topic: USS Ingersoll (DD-652)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Don’t give your opinions about Art and the Purpose of Life. They are of little interest and, anyway, you can’t express them. Don’t analyse yourself. Give the relevant facts and let your readers make their own judgments. Stick to your story. It is not the most important subject in history but it is one about which you are uniquely qualified to speak.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)