USS Woolsey ( DD - 437 ) USS " Woolsey " ( DD - 437 ) , a " Gleaves " - class destroyer , was the 2nd ship to be named " Woolsey " in the United States Navy . It is the first to be named for both Commodore Melancthon Brooks Woolsey and his father Commodore Melancthon Taylor Woolsey . " Woolsey " was laid down on 9 October 1939 at Bath , Maine by the Bath Iron Works , launched on 12 February 1941 , sponsored by Mrs . Irving Spencer , and commissioned on 7 May 1941 with Lieutenant Commander William H . Von Dreele in command . World War II operations . Following a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea , " Woolsey " joined the Atlantic Fleet at the beginning of the second week in September . Initially , she served on the Neutrality Patrol , established by President Franklin D . Roosevelt to keep the war in Europe from spreading to the western hemisphere . For a time , she also served as a unit in the screen of the newly commissioned battleship " North Carolina " ( BB - 55 ) . As the year 1941 waned and the United States approached closer and closer to active belligerency , " Woolsey " began escorting convoys between the United States and Iceland . The attack on Pearl Harbor and America ' s entry into World War II found the destroyer in Iceland completing the first leg of one such round - trip voyage . War brought a change to " Woolsey " ' s range of duties . Her convoy escort work was broadened to include voyages to the British Isles and Puerto Rico . That duty occupied her energies until the fall of 1942 when she participated in her first invasion operation . Operation Torch . For Operation Torch , the invasion of Vichy French - controlled North Africa , " Woolsey " was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 13 ( DesRon 13 ) which served as antisubmarine screen for the Center Attack Group , the Fedhala landing force . That task organization sortied from Hampton Roads , Virginia , on 24 October and , four days later , rendezvoused with the other units which comprised Task Force 34 ( TF 34 ) . After a meandering and mercifully uneventful crossing , the ships reached the vicinity of the Moroccan coast , and each of the three task groups went their separate ways . " Woolsey " arrived off Fedhala with the Center Attack Force just before midnight on 7 November . Between 05 : 00 and 06 : 00 the next morning , the troops landed at Fedhala and consolidated their beachhead quickly . Resistance soon dissipated , and " Woolsey " seems not to have participated actively in this phase of the operation other than to conduct antisubmarine patrols against a menace which , at that juncture , failed to materialize . Later , however , the German Navy belatedly took a hand in the fracas . U - boat s began attacking the transports . On the 11th , " U - 173 " sank " Joseph Hewes " ( AP - 50 ) . Between then and 15 November , several other attacks occurred . On the 16th , " U - 173 " returned to the area and probably was the German submarine responsible for torpedoing " Electra " ( AK - 21 ) . That time though , the U - boat failed to make good her escape . " Woolsey " , still on antisubmarine patrol , caught the submarine ' s reflection with her sonar and , joined by " Swanson " ( DD - 443 ) and " Quick " ( DD - 490 ) , charged to the attack . The three destroyers made a coordinated depth charge assault that destroyed " U - 173 " . The following day , " Woolsey " departed the Moroccan coast to return to Hampton Roads , where she arrived on the 30th . Escort duty . After a series of training operations along the eastern seaboard primarily off the New England coast the destroyer began duty escorting transatlantic convoys in mid - January 1943 . On the 14th , she departed New York with Convoy UGF - 4 . The convoy reached Casablanca on the 25th , and , after a week in port , " Woolsey " escorted the return convoy , GUF - 4 , back to New York , arriving there on 13 February . At the beginning of March , she helped shepherd Convoy UGF - 6 to Casablanca , then made a brief round - trip voyage from Casablanca to Gibraltar and back before returning to the east coast with GUF - 6 early in April . The warship then plied the waters of the eastern seaboard until mid - May , conducting antisubmarine patrols and screening coastwise convoys between Norfolk and New York . On 14 May , " Woolsey " put to sea from New York with her last transatlantic convoy , UGS - 8 . She and her charges reached Casablanca on 1 June , and the destroyer remained there a fortnight . On the 15th , she departed Morocco , but , instead of returning to the United States as she had done in the past , she headed via Gibraltar to Algiers on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa . Mediterranean operations . When " Woolsey " reached Gibraltar the next day , an Atlantic phase of her wartime career ended , and the Mediterranean phase began . She reported for duty with the 8th Fleet just in time to participate in the invasion of Sicily , and operations in Italian waters consumed the bulk of her time and energy during the ensuing eight months . For the Sicily assault , she drew duty as a fire - support ship for one of three sectors into which the Licata landing beaches were divided . Save for one brief round - trip voyage to Algiers in mid - July , " Woolsey " provided gunfire support for the troops operating ashore on Sicily and helped to defend Allied shipping from German air attacks . Though she appears not to have accounted for any Luftwaffe aircraft , she did succeed in destroying an enemy railroad battery with gunfire . By mid - August , with Sicily secured , she began preparations for the landings on the Italian mainland at Salerno . For that invasion , the destroyer was assigned to the Southern Attack Force fire support group which consisted of five cruiser s — four American and one British — and the four destroyers of " Woolsey " ' s DesRon 13 . In that capacity , she supported the landings on the southern sector of the Gulf of Salerno shoreline . During the assault on 9 September , however , she received only one call for fire support . That event occurred just after 16 : 30 when her shore fire control party called upon her to join " Bristol " ( DD - 453 ) in shooting up an enemy tank formation . After completing her mission at Salerno the next day , " Woolsey " returned to more routine missions . She made voyages between Naples and North African ports escorting supply echelons to the expanding Italian campaign . While operating outside of Oran , Algeria , on 16 December , she encountered the " U - 73 " . After forcing the U - boat to surface with a full pattern of depth charges , " Woolsey " ' s gunners went to work and completed the destruction of " U - 73 " . The destroyer rescued and made prisoners 23 of the U - boat ' s survivors . Late in January 1944 , the destroyer returned to amphibious operations , this time as a unit of the Fire Support Group for the Anzio landings . Arriving off the beachhead on 22 January 1944 , she delivered call fire support for the troops as they landed . The relative ease experienced during the opening phase at Anzio however , belied the actual complexion of the campaign . Failing to break out of the beachhead early , the Army forces were soon surrounded on three sides by German forces which threatened to push them into the sea . The dogged determination of American infantrymen and the yeoman - like support provided them by the Navy enabled the troops ashore to hold on until a link - up was made with the Salerno forces in May . During the first month of that desperate struggle , " Woolsey " provided gunfire support for the troops ashore and protected the ships which constituted their lifeline to the outside world . Late in February , however , she departed the Italian campaign to return to the United States for necessary repairs . After a stop at Gibraltar on 11 February , she headed via Horta in the Azores to Boston , Massachusetts , where she arrived on the 25th . Completing her repairs at Boston in mid - March , she conducted refresher training at Casco Bay , Maine , before heading back to the Mediterranean at the end of the third week in April . She stopped at Gibraltar on the last day of that month and arrived at Oran on May Day . The ensuing three months saw her operating out of Oran conducting antisubmarine patrols of the approaches to that port . While operating with a hunting group composed of " Benson " ( DD - 421 ) , " Ludlow " ( DD - 438 ) , and " Niblack " ( DD - 424 ) in mid - May , " Woolsey " experienced her third and last encounter with a German U - boat . A report of torpedo tracks from a newcomer to the Mediterranean , U - 960 , brought DesDiv 25 to the area between Oran and Cartagena early on the 17th to commence a two - day search and destroy mission . During the night of 18 and 19 May , the four destroyers split themselves into two search groups and began searching a possible submarine track 10 miles to each side of it . About an hour and 40 minutes into the mid - watch , the four warships received word that a plane had spotted the submarine some 10 miles ahead of " Niblack " and " Ludlow " . Those two ships charged to the attack ; and , by the time " Woolsey " arrived on the scene with " Benson " and " Madison " ( DD - 425 ) , the two destroyers had succeeded in forcing the U - boat to surface after delivering 11 depth charge attacks over the space of four hours . Immediately , all five destroyers opened fire on the submarine while a British Wellington bomber shifted through the melee at low altitude to drop depth bombs near " U - 960 " . The German ship suffered a number of 5 inch hits before submerging again . " Niblack " responded with more depth charges . That attack evidently rung the death knell for " U - 960 " for she immediately resurfaced , and her crew scrambled off just as she made her final plunge at about 07 : 15 on the 19th . The destroyers picked up the U - boat ' s captain and 21 of her crew . While " Niblack " and " Ludlow " received official credit for sinking the enemy submarine — no doubt a fair assessment considering their four - hour attack and the fact that " Niblack " probably delivered the coup de grace — " Woolsey " ' s 5 inch gunfire probably contributed to the enemy ' s destruction . Following that action , " Woolsey " continued relatively routine patrols until the end of July when she began preparations for the invasion of southern France . For that operation , " Woolsey " was assigned to the Bombardment Group attached to Camel Force . In that capacity , she supported the landings on the right flank of the assault area near Saint - Raphaël . During the 15 August invasion , her guns knocked out two German tanks but , though the Camel area assault proved to be the most heavily contested thrust , the entire southern France operation constituted little more than a walkover . Consequently , very soon after the initial invasion " Woolsey " shifted to supporting the 1st Airborne Task Force ' s drive along the coast toward Italy . She fired upon enemy lines of communication along the coast particularly roads and supported the liberation of Cannes on 24 August . The destroyer continued her operations along the Franco – Italian coast until late October . At that time , she headed for Naples for a visit before returning to Oran , where she arrived on 29 November . The warship was back off the southern coast of France in mid - December and resumed her interdiction duties until mid - January 1945 . At that time , she bade farewell to the Mediterranean and the 8th Fleet . Following a brief tour of duty patrolling in the Azores , " Woolsey " returned to the United States , arriving in New York on 23 February . Pacific operations . After operating along the New England coast until late April and escorting a convoy to Great Britain in May , the warship returned home to receive a reinforced antiaircraft battery preparatory to her impending transfer to the war in the Pacific . Late in June , she steamed south to conduct refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . Completing that duty on 7 July , she transited the Panama Canal two days later and reported for duty with the Pacific Fleet . She stopped at San Diego , California , from 18 July to 3 August . A week later , while she was still at Pearl Harbor , Japan capitulated . Late in August , she escorted a convoy carrying occupation troops to Japan . She stopped at Sasebo until 26 September and then began a voyage during which she made a series of port visits at Manila , Shanghai , Okinawa , and Saipan . From the last - named place , " Woolsey " got underway on 3 November to return home . After stops at Pearl Harbor and San Diego , the destroyer ended her brief interlude with the Pacific Fleet on 29 November when she retransited the Panama Canal . She arrived in Charleston , South Carolina on 4 December and began preparations for inactivation . On 8 March 1946 , the destroyer was placed in commission , in reserve . Eleven months later , on 6 February 1947 , she was placed out of commission . Berthed with the Charleston Group , Atlantic Reserve Fleet , for 10 years , " Woolsey " was towed to Boston in late October 1957 . Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 July 1971 , and she was sold to Andy International , Inc . , for scrapping on 29 May 1974 . " Woolsey " ( DD - 437 ) earned seven battle star s during World War II .