USS Theodore E. Chandler (DD-717) - 1946-1949

1946-1949

After shakedown near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she escorted Saipan (CVL-48) and Leyte (CV-32) while the two aircraft carriers trained new pilots. Then, on 20 September, she stood out of New York bound for the west coast. The destroyer transited the Panama Canal on the 26th and joined Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 17 at San Diego on 7 October. After amphibious and fleet exercises on the west coast, she departed San Diego on 6 January 1947 bound for Japan.

The warship reached Yokosuka on the 25th. Operating from Japan—where she called at such places as Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Sasebo—she visited Tsingtao, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Amoy to keep a wary eye on the events occurring in China until she returned to San Diego on 20 September.

After operating along the west coast for the next year, Theodore E. Chandler headed west on 1 October 1948 for her second tour of duty in the western Pacific. That assignment was abbreviated on 24 November when she collided with Ozbourn (DD-846) during highspeed, darkened-ship, night maneuvers off Tsingtao. After stops at Tsingtao and at Yokosuka for temporary repairs, she headed back to the west coast on 14 January 1949. The destroyer reached Long Beach on 5 February and, after completing a five-month repair period, resumed operations along the Pacific coast which, save for a run to Pearl Harbor in the fall of 1949, occupied her until events in Korea summoned her back to the Orient.