USS KENNETH M. WILLETT DE 354 was
launched 7 March 1944 by Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Tex.; sponsored by
Mrs. D. C. Willett, mother of Lt. (j.g.) Willett; and commissioned 19 July 1944
at Orange, Lt. Comdr. J. M. Stuart in command.
After shakedown and training off Bermuda,
KENNETH M. WILLETT served as a training ship in the Chesapeake Bay from 1 to 20 October.
Joining CortDiv 82, she departed Norfolk 21 October for duty in the Pacific with the 7th
Fleet. Steaming via the Panama Canal, the Galapagos Islands, and the New Hebrides, she
reached Hollandia, New Guinea, 28 November.
Assigned to convoy escort duty between
Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, and Leyte Gulf, Philippines, KENNETH M. WILLETT made seven trips
from 13 December 1944 to 25 February 1945. On 1 January 1945, while she screened a convoy
to Hollandia, KENNETH M. WILLET’s guns brought down an attacking enemy torpedo plane
close aboard one of the merchant ships.
Upon arriving Leyte Gulf, 25 February, the
destroyer escort was assigned to patrol and ASW duty. Steaming to Mangarin Bay, Mindoro, 6
March, she made hunter-killer patrols off Mindoro and Luzon, then returned to Leyte Gulf 4
June for escort duty between Leyte and Ulithi, Western Carolines. After two runs to
Ulithi, she resumed patrol duty off Mindoro 2 July, and on the 10th, she returned to Leyte
for a convoy escort run to Okinawa.
Departing 17 July with a convoy of LCI's
and LST's, KENNETH M. WILLETT steamed via Casiguran Bay, Luzon, for the Ryukyus. After
safely passing through a typhoon 30 to 31 July, the convoy reached Okinawa 7 August.
KENNETH M.WILLETT departed the next day for Leyte. During the next 16 weeks she made
convoy runs out of Leyte and Manila to Ulithi, Tokyo, and Shanghai. And from 29 December
to 29 January 1946 she operated out of Guiuan Roadstead, Samar, on intermittent weather
patrols east of Leyte Gulf.
Steaming to Manila 10 February, KENNETH M.
WILLETT cleared the bay 15 February for patrol duty along the Chinese coast. She arrived
Tsingtao 20 February with five other destroyer escorts and commenced operations from
theYellow Sea to Shanghai in support of Chinese Nationalists' efforts to wrest control of
the northern Chinese Mainland from the Communists. Following ASW operations in the North
Yellow Sea 1 to 5 April, she departed Tsingtao 15 April en route to the United States.
Steaming via Guam, Eniwetok, and Pearl Harbor, she arrived San Pedro 11 May. She
decommissioned 24 October and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego 10
November.
DE 354 was stricken 1 July 1972 and sunk as
CINCLANTFLT target off Puerto Rico 5 March 1974.
Sources:
K. Jack Bauer and Stephen S. Roberts, "Register of Ships of the U. S. Navy, 1775-1990" and DANFS, Vol 3,
1969.
US Navy Ship Dispositions:
Post-World War Two, 1996, Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington.
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