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USS Fechteler (DD-870/DDR-870) 

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Fechteler (DD-870/DDR-870) 

USS Fechteler (DD-870) was launched 19 September 1945 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Staten Island, N.Y.; sponsored by Miss Joan S. Fechteler, sponsor of the first Fechteler; and commissioned 2 March 1946, Commander A. A. Wellings in command. She was re-classified DDR-870, 9 April 1953.

Homeported at Norfolk, Va., USS Fechteler (DD-870) operated with carriers in the Virginia Capes area, and made a brief winter cruise to Argentia, Newfoundland. On 6 January 1947 she sailed from Norfolk for the west coast, and on 26 May sailed from San Diego for her first tour of duty in the Far East.

USS Fechteler (DD-870) completed a second tour of duty in the Far East in 1949, and in June 1950, when the Korean War broke out, was at sea off San Francisco on exercises. At once she sailed for Pearl Harbor, where she stood by in preparation for the possible spreading of the conflict, and on 14 July returned to San Diego to prepare for Korean service. 

USS Fechteler (DD-870) was decommissioned and placed in reserve 1 April 1953, for conversion to a radar picket destroyer. Recommissioned 1 December 1953, USS Fechteler (DD-870) sailed 10 May 1954 for duty in the Far East until 6 September, when she sailed on westward to join the Atlantic Fleet at Newport, arriving 27 October. In addition to participating in the Atlantic schedule of east coast and Caribbean exercises, she also joined in a midshipman cruise in the summer of 1955, voyaging to Malaga, Spain; Plymouth, England; and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Once more assigned to the Pacific Fleet, USS Fechteler (DD-870) sailed from Newport 14 May 1956 for Long Beach, which she reached 28 June. In 1956, 1957-58, 1958-59, and 1960, she cruised in the Far East on duty with the 7th Fleet, serving both on the Taiwan Patrol, and with carrier task forces as a radar warning ship.

For a complete history of USS Fechteler (DD-870) please see its DANFS page.