USS Wiseman (DE-667) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy for several periods between 1944 and 1973. She was scrapped in 1974.
Namesake
Osborne Beeman Wiseman was born on 20 February 1915 in Zanesville, Ohio. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy on 22 June 1934, and graduated on 2 June 1938. After sea duty in the aircraft carrier and the destroyer , Wiseman was transferred to the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, for flight training. Detached on 17 March 1941, having won his wings, Wiseman joined Bombing Squadron 3 (VB-3), embarked on the Saratoga. After that carrier was torpedoed by the off Oahu on 11 January 1942 and sent to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, for repairs and alterations, its aviation units were transferred ashore to operate from Ford Island. When returned to Pearl Harbor for repair of the damage sustained early in May at the Battle of the Coral Sea, its units were transferred from the ship and replaced by some of Saratogas old units – Bombing Squadron 3, Torpedo Squadron 3 (VT-3) and Fighting Squadron 3 (VF-3). Wiseman reported on board Yorktown in time to take part in the Battle of Midway.
On the first day of the carrier action, 4 June, Lt.(j.g.) Wiseman flew two sorties, one against the carrier that morning and one against that afternoon. The latter, by that point, was the last of the four enemy flattops afloat, and the strike in which Wiseman participated proved to be the coup de grâce administered to that ship. Japanese "Zero" fighters, however, swarmed over the Dauntlesses of VB-3 and VB-6. In that melee, Wiseman's plane was shot down. Neither he nor his gunner were seen again.
Construction and commissioning
Wiseman was laid down on 26 July 1943 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by the Dravo Corp.; launched on 6 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. June Holton, the widow of Lt.(jg.) Wiseman; and commissioned at Algiers, Louisiana, on 4 April 1944.
1944–1948
Following shakedown in the Bermuda area and post-shakedown availability in the Boston Navy Yard, Wiseman departed Boston on 24 May 1944 to rendezvous with Task Force 64 (TF 64) and convoy UGS-43 on the first of three round-trip convoy escort runs. She escorted convoy GUS-43 from Casablanca, French Morocco, to New York City, then left Hampton Roads with TF-64 and convoy UGS-50 on 3 August, shepherding convoy GUS-50 from Bizerte to the United States, sailing eastward on 29 August. Following repairs and alterations at Boston (19 September – 5 October), Wiseman conducted work-ups in the waters of Casco Bay, Maine, before resuming convoy escort work as part of TF-64, shepherding UGS-57 from Hampton Roads to Bizerte, returning eastward with TF-64 and GUS-57; passing Gibraltar on 11 November, the ship returned to Chesapeake Bay with that portion of GUS-57 on 30 November, before proceeding to Charleston, South Carolina
Subsequently, converted to a floating power station – the necessity for ship-to-shore electrical facilities haying been proved during the Pacific war – at the Charleston Navy Yard, Wiseman sailed for the Pacific on 11 January 1945. Reporting to Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, for duty on 17 January 1945 upon transiting the Panama Canal, she set course for the Hawaiian Islands in company with the high speed transport .
Making port at Pearl Harbor on 3 February, the destroyer escort operated for a month in the Hawaiian Islands before setting sail for the Philippines on 3 March. Arriving at Manila on the 23d, she commenced furnishing power to that nearly demolished city on 13 April and, over the next five and one-half months, provided some of electricity. In addition, Wiseman'''s evaporators furnished 150,000 gallons (570 m³) of drinking water to Army facilities in the harbor area and to many small craft. Her radios were also utilized to a great extent. Placed at the disposal of the Navy's port director, the ship's communication outfit was used to handle harbor radio traffic until the director's equipment arrived and was installed ashore.