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USS Higbee (DD-806/DDR-806)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Higbee (DD-806/DDR-806)

USS Higbee (DD-806) was launched 13 November 1944 by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; sponsored by Mrs. A. M. Wheaton, sister of the late Mrs. Lenah S. Higbee; and commissioned 27 January 1945, Comdr. Lindsay Williamson in command.

USS Higbee (DD-806) immediately sailed to Boston, where she was converted to a radar picket destroyer. After shakedown in the Caribbean, she sailed for the Pacific 24 May, joining the famed Carrier Task Force 38 less than 400 miles from Tokyo Bay 19 July. She helped clear Japanese mine fields and supported the occupation forces for the following 7 months, finally returning to San Diego 11 April 1946. The post-war years saw USS Higbee (DD-806) make two peacetime Western Pacific cruises as well as participate in fleet exercises and tactical training maneuvers during both these cruises and off the West Coast. On her second WestPac cruise, USS Higbee (DD-806) escorted the heavy cruiser Toledo as they paid official visits to the recently constituted governments of India and Pakistan in the summer of 1948.

When Communist troops plunged into South Korea in June 1950, USS Higbee (DD-806), redesignated DDR-806 18 March 1949. was immediately deployed to the Korean coast with the 7th Fleet. USS Higbee (DD-806) returned to San Diego 8 February 1951. In two subsequent stints in Korea, she continued to screen the carrier task force and carry out shore bombardment of enemy positions. In order to protect against the possibility of Communist invasion of Nationalist China, USS Higbee (DD-806) also participated in patrol of Formosa Straits.

After 2 years duty in Japan, USS Higbee (DD-806) returned to her new home port, San Francisco, 4 September 1962. On 1 April 1963 the destroyer entered the shipyard there for a fleet rehabilitation and modernization overhaul designed to improve her fighting capabilities and lengthen her life span as an active member of the fleet. USS Higbee (DD-806) was redesignated DD-806 on 1 June 1963. Ready for action 3 January 1964, Higbee trained on the West Coast until departing for Japan 30 June and reached her new homeport, Tokosuka, 18 July. During the Tonkin Gulf Incident in August, the destroyer screened carriers of Task Force 77 in the South China Sea. In February 1965 USS Higbee (DD-806) supported the 9th Marine Brigade at Danang, Vietnam.

Returning to South Vietnam in April, USS Higbee (DD-806) bombarded enemy positions near Cape St. Jacques and the mouth of the Saigon River. On 17 June she departed Tokosuka for the West Coast, arrived Long Beach, her new home port, 2 July and operated out of there into 1967.

For a complete history of USS Higbee (DD-806) please see its DANFS page.