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NavSource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive


Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

DE- 387 USS VANCE

CLASS: Edsall TYPE: FMR (geared diesel, Fairbanks-Morse reverse gear drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1,200 tons (std) 1,590 tons (full) Dimensions: 306' (oa), 300' (wl) x 36' 10" x 12' 3" (max)
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1),
1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Machinery: 4 Fairbanks-Morse Mod. 38d81/8 geared diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 21 knots Range: 9,100 nm @ 12 knots Crew: 8 / 201

Operational and Building Data
Laid down by Brown Shipbuilding, Houston TX on 30 April 1943, Launched 16 July 1943
Commissioned 1 November 1943, Decommissioned 27 February 1946
Loaned to USCG and Recommissioned WDE-487, 15 May 1952
Returned USN and Decommissioned 16 June 1954
Reclassified and converted DER-387, 21 October 1955
Recommissioned 5 October 1956, Decommissioned 10 October 1969
Stricken 1 June 1975
Fate: Sunk as target in 1985

Click On Image
For Full Size Image
Size Image Description Contributed
By And/Or Copyright
Vance 93k undated wartime image USN
Vance 37k Vance's re-commissioning ceremony as a Coast Guard Cutter in the Philadelphia Navy Yard spring/early summer 1952. Note that Vance is still sporting a "gray" hull but is showing her new Coast Guard hull number - (W-487). In the background the stack and bridge of another WDE is visible -- I believe it's the Coast Guard Cutter Durant (WDE-489) which was also in the Philadelphia Navy Yard for overhaul and recommissioning as a Coast Guard Cutter. USGC / James R. Kelly Capt. USCG ret.
Vance 215k Pearl Harbor Hawaii, December 1968 © Richard Leonhardt
Vance 47k ship's patch, Operation Deep-Freeze 1961-62 Mike Smolinski

USS VANCE DE- 387 History
View This Vessels DANFS History Entry
(Located On The Hazegray & Underway Web Site, This Is The Main Archive For The DANFS Online Project.)

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

4 - 8 October 2004 at Memphis TN

Contact Name: Duane Baumgartner ENCS (USN, ret.)
Vance Association Master At Arms
Address: none
Phone: none
E-mail: Duane Baumgartner


Note About Contacts.

The contact listed, Was the contact at the time for this ship when located. If another person now is the contact, E-mail me and I will update this entry. These contacts are compiled from various sources over a long period of time and may or may not be correct. Every effort has been made to list the newest contact if more than one contact was found.


Additional Resources
Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
USS VANCE Web Site

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