USS Watts ( DD - 567 ) USS " Watts " ( DD - 567 ) was a " Fletcher " - class destroyer of the United States Navy . It was named for Captain John Watts ( " ca . " 1778 – 1823 ) , who fought French privateer s during the Quasi - War with France . " Watts " was laid down on 26 March 1943 at Seattle , Wash . , by the Seattle - Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp . ; launched on 31 December 1943 , sponsored by Mrs . Judith Bundick Gardner ; and commissioned on 29 April 1944 , Commander Joseph B . Maher in command . 1944 . Following two weeks of testing and calibrating equipment in Puget Sound . " Watts " embarked upon her first voyage on 17 May . She headed for San Diego and a month of shakedown training . She returned to Bremerton , Wash . on 26 June and underwent three weeks of post - shakedown availability . On 12 July , she departed Bremerton in company with battleships " Mississippi " ( BB - 41 ) and " West Virginia " ( BB - 48 ) bound for San Diego . The destroyer remained at San Diego until the 22d , at which time she put to sea in the screen of a Hawaii - bound convoy of troop transports . She arrived in Pearl Harbor on 29 July and remained only until 3 August when she stood out with Destroyer Division 113 ( DesDiv 113 ) and shaped a course for Aleutian waters . On 8 August , " Watts " led her division mates into port at Adak , Alaska . During the next seven months , the destroyer operated with the other units of DesDiv 113 as a part of the Navy ' s North Pacific Force . Since her assignment there came well after America had consolidated her hold on the Aleutians chain , the bulk of " Watts " ' duties consisted of patrols and supply convoy - escort missions between the various outposts scattered across the fog and snow - bound archipelago . On the other hand , she and her division mates did , on occasion , conduct offensive operations against the Japanese Empire — primarily against the northern Kuril Islands . Her first attempt came after more than two months of operations which might be characterized as routine — as much so as possible in the stormy northern Pacific . On 14 October , she departed Massacre Bay , Attu , for her first bombardment mission with the cruisers and destroyers of the North Pacific Force . Bad weather foiled that mission and the next which began on 24 October . Late in November , however , she departed Attu for her third attempt at bombarding the Kurils . That one proved successful ; and , on the night of 23 and 24 November , her guns joined those of the other warships of the force in pounding airfields and installations on Matsuwa To . During the retirement from the Kurils , heavy seas lashed the task force . Fortunately , the same storms which buffeted " Watts " and her sister ships kept enemy air power grounded , and the bombardment group arrived safely back at Attu on 25 November . After two weeks of badly needed repairs at Dutch Harbor , she returned to Attu on 21 December , following a brief stop at Adak . 1945 . On 3 January 1945 , the destroyer steamed out of Massacre Bay for another sweep of the waters surrounding the northern Kurils . The climax of that operation came on 5 January when she joined in successful shelling of the Suribachi area of Paramushiro . After a brief stop at Attu , " Watts " moved on to Dutch Harbor with the rest of DesDiv 113 . The following month , February , brought two more forays into the waters around the Kurils . However , only the second , which began on 16 February , ended with a bombardment . That one — on the 18th — hit installations in the Kurabi Zaki area of Paramushiro . After a brief return to Attu , " Watts " departed the Aleutians on 22 February and headed for Hawaii with " Jarvis " ( DD - 799 ) . The two destroyers reached Pearl Harbor on 1 March and began a fortnight of training and voyage repairs . On the 15th , " Watts " stood out of Pearl Harbor and headed back to the Aleutians for less than a month of operations . On 18 April , DesDiv 113 left the northern Pacific for good . From there , " Watts " and her division mates headed for Hawaii and three weeks of training in preparation for duty in the recently - launched Okinawa invasion . On 5 May , she cleared the Hawaiian Islands and steamed west by way of Eniwetok and Ulithi . On 21 May , when she arrived at Okinawa , the campaign had been in progress for almost two months , but the Japanese still hung on tenaciously . The members of the Kamikaze Corps continued to hurl themselves at the ships supporting the troops ashore . " Watts " proved to be a lucky ship while on radar picket station . Not only did her guns help to shoot down six aerial attackers , but she suffered only one really close call . A suicide plane almost managed to crash into her port side forward , but accurate 20 - millimeter fire splashed him at the last possible instant , only 10 yards off the destroyer ' s port bow . Mercifully , her stay at Okinawa proved brief . In mid - June , she received orders to join the screen of TF 38 at Leyte Gulf , where she arrived on 17 June . For the remainder of the war , " Watts " screened the fast carriers of TF 38 while their planes flew their last series of sorties against the Japanese home islands . Ranging from Hokkaidō in the north to Kyūshū in the south , those planes helped to decimate enemy shipping , land communications , and military and manufacturing installations . On 23 July , " Watts " made her own personal contribution to the destruction visited upon the enemy when her guns joined in a bombardment of the outpost island , Chichi Jima , in the Bonins . The Japanese capitulation on 15 August 1945 found the ship steaming in Japanese waters screening TF 38 . A bit under a month later , on 10 September , she entered Tokyo Bay to begin participation in the occupation of Japan . She remained on that duty until mid - November ; then headed back to the United States . After brief stops at Pearl Harbor and San Diego , the destroyer transited the Panama Canal on 7 December and headed for Philadelphia , Pa . on the 18th . " Watts " arrived at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 23 December and began a three - month inactivation overhaul . In mid - March , she shifted to the Charleston Naval Shipyard , where she was placed out of commission on 12 April 1946 . 1951 – 1957 . " Watts " remained in reserve until — to bolster the Navy during the Korean War — she was recommissioned on 6 July 1951 , Comdr . Richard Holden in command . During the first 42 months of the second phase of her career , " Watts " operated with the Destroyer Force , Atlantic Fleet . In the late summer and fall of 1951 , the warship was fitted out , conducted shakedown , and made a cruise to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . The spring of 1952 brought a round of exercises , notably " Convex III " . That summer , she went into the yard at Philadelphia for overhaul . Refresher training at Guantanamo Bay followed , and then the destroyer resumed normal operations which she continued until the beginning of 1953 . On 7 January , she put to sea from Norfolk , Va . for her first deployment with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea . That May , after visits to northern European ports , " Watts " returned to Norfolk and began operations in the western Atlantic . Her assignment for almost a year centered upon anitsubmarine warfare training with the Hunter / Killer Force , Atlantic Fleet . During that time , she made at least one cruise to the West Indies and visited Kingston , Jamaica , and San Juan , Puerto Rico . Her tour of duty with the Hunter / Killer Force ended on 12 April 1954 when she entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for another overhaul . The destroyer completed that yard period on 7 July and conducted refresher training in the vicinity of Guantanamo Bay from late July to mid - September , when she resumed duty out of Norfolk . That assignment continued until December at which time " Watts " was reassigned to the Cruiser - Destroyer Force , Pacific Fleet . After a voyage which took her to Guantanamo Bay and Havana , Cuba , as well as through the Panama Canal , she arrived in her new home port — Long Beach , Calif . — on 28 January 1955 . Between January 1955 and December 1957 , the destroyer alternated three deployments to the western Pacific with operations out of Long Beach along the western coast of the United States . During each of her tours of duty with the 7th Fleet , " Watts " divided her time between escort duty with the carriers of TF 77 and assignments with the Taiwan Strait patrol . Overhauls , type training , and refresher training filled her schedule when she returned to the west coast . 1958 – 1964 . In December 1957 , the destroyer entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for what was to have been her decommissioning overhaul . In June 1958 , however , a reprieve arrived in the form of orders to shift home port to Seattle , Wash . , and become a Naval Reserve training ship as the flagship of Reserve Escort Squadron 1 ( ResCortRon 1 ) . " Watts " served with the reserve training program for almost four years , from June 1958 to March 1962 . Throughout the entire period , the Seattle - Tacoma area remained her base of operations . She provided a platform upon which naval reservists could reacquaint themselves with the intricacies of and skills necessary to constructive Navy service . During her more than three years of reserve training cruises , she ranged the length of the western coast of the United States from San Diego , Calif . in the south to the Canadian border . She also cruised farther north to make goodwill calls at Canadian ports such as Victoria , British Columbia . During the summer of 1959 , she became the first Naval Reserve training ship to participate in a regular Fleet exercise with her reserve crew embarked . In December 1961 , the destroyer was undergoing a yard period when the Berlin crisis developed in Europe . Her reserve crew was called to active duty ; and , upon completing the overhaul on 8 January 1962 , she departed Puget Sound to return to Long Beach . She completed refresher training out of San Diego on 1 March and departed the west coast for a tour of duty with the 7th Fleet in the Orient . During that cruise , she participated in at least one training operation , a combined antiaircraft - antisubmarine exercise , and visited Midway , Guam , Hong Kong , and Kobe , Sasebo , and Yokosuka , Japan . The easing of tensions in Europe late that spring allowed her to head home at the end of June . The destroyer arrived back in Long Beach on 9 July and , on 16 July , she resumed Naval Reserve training duty at Tacoma . " Watts " completed another 30 months training reservists out of the Seattle - Tacoma area . In mid - 1963 , one of her training cruises took her to Hawaii ; but , for the most part , she operated just off the west coast . In December 1964 , " Watts " was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Bremerton . She remained there for almost a decade . On 1 February 1974 , her name was struck from the Navy list , and she was sold on 5 September 1974 to General Metals Co . , of Tacoma , Wash . , for scrapping . " Watts " earned three battle star s for her World War II service .