USS Theodore E. Chandler (DD-717) was a destroyer in the United States Navy during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was named for Theodore E. Chandler.
Theodore E. Chandler was laid down on 23 April 1945 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding Company; launched on 20 October 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Theodore E. Chandler; and commissioned on 22 March 1946.
1946–1949
After shakedown near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she escorted and 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 26 September 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 25 January. 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 the destroyer 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.
Korean War
When the North Korean People's Army invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, Theodore E. Chandler was operating out of San Diego. She spent another nine days at sea; then joined the cruiser and the rest of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 111 to form the first unit dispatched from the west coast to the new Asian conflict. After brief stops at Pearl Harbor and Yokosuka, she arrived in Sasebo on 25 July.
A brief conference held there organized the various support and escort forces into Task Force (TF) 96. Theodore E. Chandler became a unit of Task Group (TG) 96.5, the Japan-Korea Support Group, made up of an escort element, a west Korean supporting element, and two east Korean support elements. DesDiv 111, with Helena as flagship, made up one of the rotating, east Korean support elements. On 26 July, the unit departed Sasebo and shaped a course for Korea to conduct shore bombardments in support of United Nations (UN) land forces. En route, however, the task element received orders changing its destination to the Taiwan Strait. Chandler and her sister warships completed their mission in the narrow waters separating Taiwan from communist-controlled mainland China and headed for Japan on 2 August. The ships reached Sasebo on 4 August and departed again three days later. Finally, on 7 August, they took up station off the Korean coast.
Initially, they delivered gunfire to relieve the pressure upon the northeastern end of the Pusan perimeter. During her first assignment, Theodore E. Chandler steamed to Yongdok to bombard supply lines running south along the coast, bypassing the ROK 3rd Division isolated at Chongha, and on toward Pohang where UN lines ended at the Sea of Japan. On 14 August, the destroyer joined Helena near Sinchang, when the two ships destroyed a North Korean supply train and damaged several bridges and tunnels. By the following day, North Korean pressure on the Chongha enclave had become so intense that Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker evacuated the ROK 3rd Division by sea. While shipping for the evacuation assembled, the situation at Chongha continued to deteriorate, but the 3rd Division relied upon the gunfire delivered by Chandler and the other ships of the Helena task element to hold back North Korean forces. Even after the carrier planes arrived on the afternoon of 16 August and started close support, the destroyer and her sisters continued to help Helena support the ROK forces during the two more days it took to complete the evacuation.
On 18 August, Theodore E. Chandler retired from the Korean coast with the rest of the Helena group and set course for Japan. The task element reached Sasebo that same day but on the 23rd returned to Korean waters. The next day, Chandler and the other destroyers of DesDiv 111 aided Helena bombard the railroad cars and warehouses at Tanchon. On 26 August, the task element arrived off Pohang to relieve the unit in supporting the northeastern end of the UN line. The warships remained in that area with Helena until 29 August when they returned to Sasebo for an overnight stopover and, the next day, resumed station off Pohang. After three days off the east coast of Korea, the destroyer reentered Sasebo on 2 September. Ten days later, she headed for the western coast of Korea and the amphibious operation at Inchon.
For almost a month, Chandler cruised the waters of the Yellow Sea. The destroyer helped soften the positions until the landings on 15 September and, after that, covered the amphibious forces and conducted bombardments which aided the troops ashore in advancing. Early in October, she completed her mission in the Yellow Sea and returned to Sasebo on 5 October. During the next two months, she operated along Korea's eastern coast, interdicting communist supply lines with gunfire. Early in December, she made a brief stop at Sasebo before beginning a month of duty on station off Hungnam. During the evacuation of UN troops from that North Korean port, Theodore E. Chandler once again had the opportunity to aid land forces—hard-pressed since the intervention of communist China in late November—to hold a precarious perimeter during an evacuation operation. Theodore E. Chandler remained in the general neighborhood for an additional two weeks.
Between 8 and 19 January 1951, she returned to Sasebo and enjoyed her first extended period in port in over three months. When the destroyer put to sea again, she began screening the fast carriers of TF 77. For the two months of combat duty before she returned to the United States, the warship alternated between bombardment duty and assignments with the fast carriers. On 9 March, she cleared Korean waters to return home; and, after one-day stops at Yokosuka, Pearl Harbor, and San Francisco, the destroyer arrived back in San Diego on 25 March.
Theodore E. Chandler returned to Korea for a second tour of duty during the winter of 1951 and 1952. She served with both TF 77, screening the carriers, and with the UN Blockading and Escort Force (TF 95). The latter duty proved to be more variegated because it involved blockade duty, escort duty, and frequent coastal bombardment missions. Short tours of duty patrolling the Taiwan Strait, visits to Japan, and liberty calls at Hong Kong all served to break up her long stretches of service along the Korean coast.
Her third and final Korean War deployment lasted from January to mid-August 1953 and, with it, came more of the same type of duty she encountered during the preceding assignment. That tour also brought an end to the hostilities when both sides agreed to an armistice. The destroyer remained in the vicinity of Korea for three weeks after hostilities officially ended and then returned to the United States.
Interwar years
Theodore E. Chandler deployed to the Far East seven times; and, for the most part, she busied herself in training exercises with 7th Fleet units and with Allied naval units such as those of the Taiwan Navy. She also served periodically with the Taiwan Strait patrol. When not deployed to the Orient, the destroyer trained with 1st Fleet units along the west coast. Most frequently, she conducted antisubmarine warfare (ASW) drills with hunter-killer groups built around aircraft carriers specially modified to stalk submarines. Finally, during that period, she entered the yard twice for rather extensive repairs and modifications. In mid-February 1961, the destroyer began a year-long Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul during which the San Francisco Naval Shipyard refurbished her and brought her physical plant up to date. The second extended yard period came in December 1962, when, after her return from the western Pacific, she entered the yard for repairs to her generating plant which she completed in March 1963. At that time, she resumed training operations in the eastern Pacific where, save for a cruise to Hawaii with the aircraft carrier late in November, she remained until the summer of 1964.
Vietnam War
Theodore E. Chandlers next deployment coincided with the beginning of the United States's extensive buildup in Vietnam. On 19 June, she departed the west coast with ASW Group 1 bound for what appeared to be a normal peacetime deployment to the western Pacific. However, on 2 August, North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly made a torpedo attack upon the destroyer while she cruised international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. Theodore E. Chandler received orders to join the ASW screen of carriers dispatched to deliver air strikes on North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases. After the strikes, the warship resumed her normal duties with ASW Group 1 and the 7th Fleet.
Theodore E. Chandler returned to Long Beach on 6 January 1965 for an overhaul at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. After 10 weeks of refresher training and ASW exercises, she began preparations early in August for another deployment to the western Pacific. She departed Long Beach on 20 August and, following a nonstop voyage in company with DesDiv 92 and oilers and , arrived in Yokosuka on 4 September. Four days later, the warship put to sea again bound for the Philippines. Upon her arrival at Subic Bay, she received orders to the Taiwan Strait, and she patrolled those vital waters from 16 to 20 September. When she returned to the Philippines, Theodore E. Chandler began shore bombardment training at the Tabones range.
That duty, however, was interrupted on 30 September by a special assignment off the coast of Indonesia. In response to local political turbulence, Theodore E. Chandler rendezvoused with the 7th Fleet Amphibious Ready Group, and prepared to evacuate United States citizens should the need arise. Fortunately, that eventuality never came to pass. Consequently, the special task organization was dissolved, and Theodore E. Chandler departed the area in company with the destroyer .
During the second portion of the deployment, the warship began regular tours of duty with the naval forces operating off the Vietnamese coastline. On 9 October, she and Hollister joined the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard to form Task Group (TG) 77.4 which operated on "Dixie Station"—off the central coast of South Vietnam —until 18 October. The next day, she steamed north with the task group to "Yankee Station" whence planes from Bon Homme Richard struck targets in North Vietnam. After 10 days of air operations, Theodore E. Chandler departed the area with the rest of the task group for five days of rest and relaxation at Hong Kong.
The warships left Hong Kong on 11 November to take up station off the coast of North Vietnam again. On 18 November, the destroyer received orders detaching her from the Bon Homme Richard group for duty as an antiaircraft warfare (AAW) picket ship. After serving 22 days as an AAW picket, she rejoined the carrier group again on 10 December. The carrier launched air strikes during the following eight days; and then, on 18 December, the entire group shaped a course for Subic Bay and thence proceeded to Hong Kong for another five-day port call.