page_title: USS Thompson (DD-627)
section_title: Korean War
hierarchical_section_title: USS Thompson (DD-627) / Korean War
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy destroyer-minesweeper USS Thompson (DMS-38), circa inthe early 1950s.
context_page_description: USS Thompson (DD-627) was first a Gleaves-class destroyer, then became an Ellyson-class destroyer minesweeper. She was the second Navy ship named "Thompson", and the first named in honor of Robert M. Thompson.
context_section_description: While in the yard, she received news that North Korean armed forces had invaded South Korea crossing the 38th parallel. Completing her overhaul ahead of schedule, Thompson returned to San Diego on 20 July and began an accelerated and rigorous underway training period which lasted through August and part of September 1950.
  On 4 October 1950, Thompson and sister ship Carmick (DD-493) departed San Diego, and arrived at Pearl Harbor five days later. The next day, they got underway for Midway Atoll. Twenty-four hours from their destination, orders directed them to patrol off Wake Island during the meeting of General Douglas MacArthur and President Harry Truman. Thompson remained there overnight, refueling at sea from Guadalupe (AO-32) before proceeding to Japan, arriving at Sasebo on 21 October.
  While Thompson and Carmick had steamed across the Pacific, United Nations forces had been rallying after the initial heavy losses and retreats at the hands of the communist armies. Accordingly, the American Eighth Army put heavy pressure on North Korean troops, pushing them towards P'yŏngyang, on the west coast of Korea. This thrust was stretching the Army's supply lanes. To remedy this problem, an operation was mounted to open up the mined port of Chinnampo, some 50 km southwest of P'yŏngyang, at the mouth of the Taedong River.
  This required ingenuity and resourcefulness, not least because of a lack of minesweeping craft at the start of operations. Thompson and Carmick, newly arrived in the "Land of the Morning Calm", were detailed to join the makeshift minesweeping organization recently established under Commander Stephen M. Archer.
  Consisting of Forrest Royal (DD-872), Catamount (LSD-17), Horace A. Bass (APD-124), Pelican (AMS-32), Swallow (AMS-36), and Gull (AMS-16), Japanese LST Q-007,
  four Republic of Korea minesweepers, and a helicopter from Rochester (CA-124), this task group performed a nearly impossible feat in slightly over two weeks. Before too long, American ships were bringing in supplies to the advancing Eighth Army. After a week of patrol duties off the newly swept port escorting logistics ships now able to utilize the channel, Thompson left the bitterly cold region behind for a week of repairs and resupply at Sasebo.
  In early November, however, the entry of Chinese communist forces into the war vastly altered the strategic picture. In the face of heavy onslaughts, United Nations troops retreated. One port which served as an evacuation point was Chinnampo, familiar to Thompson’s men as a result of the minesweeping operation conducted a scant month before.
  While United Nations warships conducted bombardments of advancing communist troops, Thompson escorted troopships out of the harbor in dense fog and through treacherous tidal currents to assist in the evacuation. For her part in this action, Thompson received the Navy Unit Commendation.
  After replenishment, she served as harbor control vessel at Incheon, Korea. Two days after Christmas, she suddenly received orders to head for Sasebo, where MineRon 1 was to be regrouped. Arriving at the Japanese port on 27 December, she departed on 30 December 1950, in company with Doyle (DMS-34) and Endicott (DMS-35) for minesweeping assignments on the east coast of Korea. There, she spent close to three weeks engaged in clearance sweeps so that support ships could take fire-support stations to assist ground forces ashore.
  In late January 1951, after a month in the arduous and cold conditions of that region, Thompson returned to Sasebo for repairs. These included drydocking for work on the hull, and, as a result of the docking period, the availability was extended another three weeks, before she departed for minesweeping operations again in mid-February.
  Using Wonsan as a base, she operated to the northward, eventually sweeping Kyoto Wan deep, 60 miles (97 km) south of the Manchurian border. While sweeping off the key railway nexus of Sŏngjin, Thompson ran across a new minefield and cut seven mines as she passed through on her sweep. Later, she operated in the screen for Missouri (BB-
caption: Thompson as DMS-38 during the Korean War
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