USS Jack W. Wilke

History
United States
Laid down	18 October 1943
Launched	18 December 1943
Commissioned	7 March 1944
Decommissioned	24 May 1960
Stricken	1 August 1972
Fate	Sold for scrap, 4 March 1974
General characteristics
Displacement	1,740 full; 1,400 tons, standard;
Length	306 ft 0 in (93 m)
Beam	36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Draft	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion	GE turbo-electric drive; 12,000 shp (8.9 MW); two propellers;
Speed	24 knots (44 km/h)
Range	4,940 nautical miles (9,150 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement	15 officers, 198 men
Armament	3 × DP guns; 3 × 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tubes; 1 × AA gun; 8 × 20 mm cannon; 1 × hedgehog projector; 2 × depth charge tracks; 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors;

USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800) was a

Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy

.

Namesake

Jack Winton Wilke was born on 13 June 1919 in

Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) on board USS Hornet

in the Pacific.

In the

George H. Gay, of the squadron were lost; but their attack had diverted Japanese fighters from dive bombing attacks which might otherwise have prevented the eventual U.S. Navy victory. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross

.

Construction and commissioning

Jack W. Wilke was

Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Texas, 18 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Joe H. Wilke, mother of Ens. Wilke; and commissioned

7 March 1944.

After a

surrender of Germany, she moved to Norfolk

to serve as a weather reporting and air-sea rescue vessel.

Jack W. Wilke sailed 4 June 1945 for

Port Everglades, Florida

for three weeks of experimental ASW exercises. In September, she underwent a three-month overhaul at

New York Navy Yard

in preparation for her new role as an experimental antisubmarine ship. Jack W. Wilke sailed back to Florida on 7 January 1946 to commence operations out of Key West. During the years that followed, she carried out experiments in both tactics and sound equipment off Key West and during occasional cruises in the West Indies.

The ship's schedule of experimental operations was interrupted on New Year's Day 1959 by the triumph of Fidel Castro's forces in Cuba; and Jack W. Wilke steamed to Havana with other ships to help stabilize the situation and to protect American lives and property. During the remainder of the year, she operated off Key West and Norfolk on training operations, and took part in a special good-will cruise to Panama in October during a Caribbean training period.

Returning to Key West, the ship decommissioned 24 May 1960, and entered the

Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia. The old escort was struck from the Navy list on 1 August 1972 and later sold for scrap to Union Metals & Alloys Corp., New York

, on 4 March 1974.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

history.navy.mil: USS Jack W. Wilke(revised 3 November 2005) Archived 29 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
navsource.org: USS Jack W. Wilke
hazegray.org: USS Jack W. Wilke