USS Hyman

	USS Hyman (DD-732) underway in the early 1950s
History
United States
Name	Hyman
Namesake	Willford Milton Hyman
Builder	Bath Iron Works
Laid down	22 November 1943
Launched	8 April 1944
Commissioned	16 June 1944
Decommissioned	c.1969
Stricken	16 November 1969
Fate	Sold 13 October 1970 and broken up for scrap
General characteristics
Class and type	Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer
Displacement	2,200 tons
Length	376 ft 6 in (114.76 m)
Beam	40 ft (12 m)
Draft	15 ft 8 in (4.78 m)
Propulsion	60,000 shp (45,000 kW);; 2 propellers;
Speed	34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	336
Armament	6 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal. guns,; 12 × 40 mm AA guns,; 11 × 20 mm AA guns,; 10 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes,; 6 × depth charge projectors,; 2 × depth charge tracks;

USS Hyman (DD-732), was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer of the United States Navy.

Namesake

Willford Milton Hyman was born on 16 August 1901 in Pueblo, Colorado. he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1924. He first served on the battleship USS New Mexico and in the years before World War II, was assigned to many ships and a variety of shore stations, including the Office of Naval Operations. He assumed command of destroyer USS Sims on 6 October 1941. After convoy escort duty in the Atlantic, Sims moved to the Pacific in early 1942.

In May, as the

Navy Cross

.

Construction and commissioning

Hyman was

launched on 8 April 1944 and commissioned

on 16 June 1944.

Service history

World War II

Hyman conducted exhaustive shakedown training off

Casco Bay, Maine, before sailing from Boston 18 September to join the Pacific war. She steamed via the Panama Canal Zone and San Diego to Pearl Harbor

12 October 1944. During the next few months she was occupied with training exercises, including practice amphibious assaults, and escort voyages to the advance base at Eniwetok.

As the amphibious pincers, one reaching across

Okinawa

.

Hyman sailed with Admiral Hall's Southern Attack Force 27 March 1945 and arrived Okinawa 1 April. As troops landed she took station off the transport area, protecting the American ships from enemy submarines and planes. In the following days she fought off several air attacks and on 5 April, led a search group hunting a reported

Ie Shima as the Japanese made kamikaze

attacks in hopes of stopping the landing. Shooting at attacking planes on all sides, Hyman downed several before a damaged aircraft crashed near her torpedo tubes, its engine exploding on the main deck. While fighting fire and flooding, Hyman helped down two more aircraft before the engagement ended, leaving twelve of her men killed and over forty wounded.

After emergency repairs at

Yokosuka early in 1946, the ship sailed via California

and the Canal Zone to Casco Bay, Maine, where she arrived 16 April 1946. Hyman took part in antisubmarine training operations in the Caribbean through the end of 1946.

Hyman sailed for her first deployment to the Mediterranean 2 February 1947. For the next year she operated in coastal waters, but sailed 13 September 1948 with a carrier and cruiser group for the Mediterranean. The ships supported the United Nations peace force in Palestine. After this cruise Hyman returned to Newport, Rhode Island on 23 January 1949.

Korea

Through 1949 and 1950 the destroyer was assigned to reserve training duty out of

Algiers, Louisiana, and on this duty she steamed for 2-week periods. With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Hyman engaged in maneuvers and training in the Caribbean, ending her reserve duty in September. After another cruise to the Mediterranean from 6 March to 7 June 1951, she prepared for Korean duty, getting underway from Newport on 2 October 1951. Hyman steamed with her division via the Panama Canal, San Diego, and Hawaii

, arriving at Yokosuka on 31 October.

With the ground war in Korea then in stalemate, fleet air power, and surface bombardment carried much of the fight to the enemy. Hyman arrived at

Ceylon

, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and France.

Cold War

The veteran ship sailed again for Mediterranean waters 7 January 1953. On this cruise she took part in joint operations with British and French ships, returning to her home port 24 May 1953. During 1954 and 1955 Hyman took part in antisubmarine operations in the Caribbean and Atlantic. In 1956 she cruised to the Caribbean with midshipmen on training operations, and participated in

International Naval Review at the Jamestown Festival

, commemorating the 350th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

After another Midshipman cruise, Hyman sailed on 29 November 1957 for the Mediterranean, visiting various eastern Mediterranean ports with the 6th Fleet. She returned to the United States on 12 April 1958 and for the remainder of the year was occupied with NATO exercises in the North Atlantic and antisubmarine training. Operations in home waters continued until 4 August 1960, when Hyman again sailed for duty with the 6th Fleet. In April 1961 the ship steamed west of the Azores as a station ship in the United States' Project Mercury.

During 1962 the destroyer made another cruise to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ports, operating with naval units from many navies. While Hyman was undergoing repairs in October, the introduction of offensive missiles into Cuba precipitated another Cold War crisis; and the ship steamed to join the quarantine just as it was lifted in late November.

Hyman sailed to Costa Rica in March 1963 in connection with President

L. Gordon Cooper

's successful orbital flight. During the remainder of the year the ship conducted training exercises in the Caribbean.

During 1964 Hyman participated in ASW exercises and served as surveillance ship in Cuban waters. She entered

Boston Naval Shipyard

in April and departed for her eleventh deployment with the 6th Fleet on 27 November. Hyman returned to Newport on 13 March 1965 and received a new training assignment for Naval Reservists.

While conducting training exercises in mid-September 1965, Hyman was ordered to search for a chlorine barge lost in the Mississippi River during Hurricane Betsy. Although damaged by the same hurricane that sunk the barge, Hyman searched the Mississippi River for a week. Sonar sweeps and fathometer traces located the barge with its deadly gas near Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 17 September. Following this, Hyman went to Orange, Texas, for hull repairs. Training of Naval Reservists kept Hyman busy into 1967.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.