USS Tills (DE-748) - Reactivated As A Training Ship

Reactivated As A Training Ship

Reactivated early in 1947 to an "in-service status", the ship was towed to Miami, Florida, where she was partially fitted out. In July, she made a two-week training cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with naval reservists on board. The following month, she entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina for overhaul. Refurbished by November, Tills was homeported at Miami and operated along the east coast from Boston, Massachusetts, to Panama and in the Caribbean, primarily training reservists.

Tills was placed back in full commission at Charleston, South Carolina, on 21 November 1950, with Lt. Comdr. Elmo R. Zumwalt in command. The destroyer escort subsequently operated off the east coast as a training ship, undertaking refresher and reserve training cruises. Homeported at Charleston, the ship took part in Exercise "Convex III" from 27 February to 20 March 1952 and in Operation "Emigrant" from 6 to 12 October 1952. In between these tasks, she made her first cruise to European waters in the summer of 1952, calling at Lisbon, Portugal, and Arcachon, France, in June.

Continuing her reserve training cruises off the east coast through the summer of 1955, Tills cruised to Europe again and, after calling once more at Lisbon, added Cadiz, Spain, to her itinerary. In 1956, the destroyer escort undertook a total of 13 naval reserve cruises.

On 1 May 1958, Tills' home port was moved to Boston, Massachusetts, shifting the locus of her operations northward to the northeastern coast of the United States and to the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. On 1 September 1959, after the ship had conducted reserve training and refresher training cruises for over a year, her home port was moved still farther north to Portland, Maine. On 18 October 1959, Tills was decommissioned and placed in service as a unit of the Selected Reserve Training Program. Administrative control was accordingly shifted from Commander, Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, to Commandant, 1st Naval District.