USS William T . Powell ( DE - 213 ) USS " William T . Powell " ( DE / DER - 213 ) , a of the United States Navy , was named in honor of Gunner ' s Mate William T . Powell ( 1918 - 1942 ) , who was killed in action , aboard the heavy cruiser off Guadalcanal on 12 November 1942 . " William T . Powell " was laid down on 26 August 1943 at the Charleston Navy Yard ; launched on 27 November 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . Elsie V . Powell , mother of Gunner ' s Mate Powell , and commissioned on 28 March 1944 , Lieutenant James L . Davenport , United States Naval Reserve , in command . Service history . World War II , 1944 – 1945 . Shakedown cruise . After fitting out , " William T . Powell " got underway from the Charleston Navy Yard on 18 April , flying the command pennant of Commander George F . Adams , USNR , Commander Escort Division 66 , and bound for Bermuda . At 15 : 41 on 20 April , the ship ' s search radar disclosed a contact . Seven minutes later , " William T . Powell " went to general quarters as lookouts noted a submarine running on the surface . The destroyer escort charged ahead at flank speed and challenged the submarine , only to be informed that the stranger was , en route from New London , Connecticut , to Key West , Florida . " All hands very disappointed when sub turned out to be friendly , " noted Comdr . Adams in the destroyer escort ' s war diary as the ship continued on toward Bermuda . Upon her arrival on the 21st , " William T . Powell " moored alongside and got underway three days later to commence her shakedown . In the ensuing weeks , the new destroyer escort ' s operations ran the gamut of activities for the ships of her type : exercises with submerged submarines ( in her case , the old " R " boat , ; torpedo attack practices ; fueling at sea ; simulated depth charge and " hedgehog " attacks ; shore bombardments , and the inevitable gunnery drills . She operated out of Great Sound , Bermuda , and normally returned to anchor each evening upon the completion of the day ' s slate of activities . Escort duty . Her shakedown completed shortly after the middle of May , " William T . Powell " sailed for Charleston on the 18th . She met SS " Willis A . Slater " off the sea buoy to Great Sound that day and escorted the merchantman on her northward voyage , patrolling 2 , 000 yards ahead . Leaving " Willis A . Slater " off Charleston , " William T . Powell " put into port on the 23rd and , from 24 May to 6 June 1944 , underwent post - shakedown availability . During the overhaul , the ship received four 40 - millimeter Bofors guns , replacing the bank of torpedo tubes , to give the ship a more potent anti - aircraft battery . Underway for the Panama Canal Zone on 9 June , " William T . Powell " test - fired her new 40 - millimeter battery en route and reached Cristobal , Canal Zone , at 11 : 47 on 11 June . She transited the canal two days later and got underway again at 06 : 27 on the 14th for exercises at sea near Taboga Island . She practiced repelling attacks by motor torpedo boat s . " William T . Powell " subsequently retransmitted the canal , eastbound on 15 June , and moored at Cristobal at 18 : 18 that day . She joined the escort carrier on the 17th and escorted the escort carrier as she headed , via Port Everglades , Florida , for Hampton Roads , Virginia . Released from that escort duty on the 24th , " William T . Powell " then operated at Norfolk , Virginia from 29 June to 9 July as a school ship for destroyer escort crew trainees before she sortied from Hampton Roads on 10 July in the screen of Convoy UGS - 48 . Convoy UGS - 48 . At 00 : 29 on 1 August 1944 , " William T . Powell " received a TBS message from the task force commander , Captain C . M . E . Hoffman , in , to man battle stations in anticipation of an enemy air attack . The destroyer escort complied and soon , together with the other escorts of sector 3 , began making funnel smoke Radar picked up the enemy attackers at 90 miles away ; " William T . Powell " and her sisters , meanwhile , continued steaming back and forth at the rear of the convoy , making smoke . The convoy received an additional alert from radio Algiers at 00 : 37 and , 13 minutes later , detected many friendly and enemy planes . The escorts now began making chemical smoke from the CS canisters on the fantail of each ship ; with visibility near zero , the ships commenced conning by radar . , a British anti - aircraft cruiser , commenced the action at 00 : 58 , firing by radar control . At 01 : 05 , lookouts in " William T . Powell " spotted flares close aboard on the port side of the convoy ; but the gunners were cautioned not to fire . Ten minutes later , however , with enemy planes within range , the convoy opened up ; mount 21 in " William T . Powell " glimpsed an enemy bomber through the eerie murk and fired a four - round burst ; the plane , obscured in smoke and clouds , soon disappeared . The firing lasted only a minute ; " William T . Powell " ceased fire at 01 : 16 , feeling detonations from time to time - believed to be either bombs or torpedoes exploding at the end of their runs . By 01 : 53 , the quartermaster on watch in " William T . Powell " could write : " Things cool off a bit and Condition Easy - One is set . " At 02 : 30 , the convoy received a white alert ( all clear ) , and the escorts ceased making smoke and took their normal screening stations . Seven minutes later , the destroyer escort secured from general quarters . The defense of UGS - 48 was a successful one ; the enemy did not claim any of the ships . As Lt . Davenport , the commanding officer of " William T . Powell " , wrote in his subsequent report of the action : " The value of smoke as a protection against Night Air Attack was proved . Visibility was absolutely zero , and flares were useless to the attacking planes . " Convoy escort and submarine hunter . After seeing all ships of UGS - 48 safely to their Mediterranean destination , " William T . Powell " served with Task Force 62 as it escorted the homeward - bound group , GUS - 48 , back to the United States before heading north for training in the Casco Bay area . During the night of 14 and 15 September , while en route to Casco Bay , " William T . Powell " rode out a hurricane with no damage . The destroyer escort shepherded Convoys UGS - 55 and GUS - 55 to their respective Mediterranean and East Coast destinations in September and October , before she became a unit of Task Unit 27 . 1 . 2 based at NS Argentia , Newfoundland . She operated out of Argentia as part of that anti - submarine , hunter - killer group from 28 November to 24 December 1944 before shifting to Casco Bay and operating from that base from Christmas Eve to New Year ' s Day . After TU 27 . 1 . 2 was redesignated TG 22 . 9 , " William T . Powell " resumed operations from Argentia on 4 January 1945 and continued them through the end of the month . Following that stint of hunter - killer duty , the destroyer escort exercised with American submarines out of New London , Connecticut , for almost a month , 4 February to 2 March 1945 , and trained in Casco Bay from 18 to 21 March . After the completion of that training period , " William T . Powell " proceeded with TG 22 . 9 , via the Azores , to Liverpool , England . Upon arrival , TG 22 . 9 was redesignated and reconstituted as TG 120 . 1 on 4 April ; " William T . Powell " operated as flagship for that unit ' s senior officer , Comdr . Vernon A . Isaacs , USNR . TG 120 . 1 , later redesignated Escort Group 32 , subsequently performed anti - submarine hunter - killer group and support unit duties for convoys in the western approaches to the British Isles . During the closing weeks of the European war , " William T . Powell " patrolled shallow water approaches , sank floating and drifting mines , and supported the escorts for 12 convoys in submarine - infested waters . She based on Derry , Northern Ireland , from 5 April to 23 May , through the cessation of hostilities with Germany and , after that enemy ' s capitulation , helped to accept the surrender of German U - boat s . Released from the 12th Fleet and the Western Approaches Command on 24 May 1945 , the destroyer escort soon sailed for home , entering the Brown Shipbuilding Company , Inc . , yard in Houston , Texas , on 15 June for conversion to a radar picket ship . However , in mid - August while she was in the yard for alterations , Japan capitulated . Post - war activities , 1945 – 1946 . She departed her conversion yard on 22 October 1945 and soon proceeded to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , for refresher training . Following post - shakedown availability , " William T Powell " trained in Casco Bay into late January 1946 and underwent a logistics period at Boston . She then sailed to Miami , Florida , where she joined the presidential yacht , , from 8 to 13 February before sailing for Norfolk . She later pushed on for Quonset Point , Rhode Island , on 31 March and , in April , plane - guarded for the escort carrier , in company with , in Narragansett Bay and off Norfolk and participated in fleet exercises at Guantanamo Bay and Culebra in May . Departing the latter on 20 May , " William T . Powell " sailed for New York in company with the carrier and " Reuben James " . The destroyer escort subsequently returned to the Norfolk and Casco Bay operating areas in early June and July before visiting Bar Harbor , Maine , for 4 July celebrations . Soon thereafter , she resumed training evolutions in Casco Bay before heading south on 19 July for Pensacola , Florida . She served there as temporary relief for the destroyer and plane - guarded for while that venerable carrier was serving as a training vessel . " William T . Powell " operated with one of her former World War II cohorts , , in Casco Bay later that summer and off New London served as a target vessel for submarines from 13 to 30 September . She arrived at Newport , Rhode Island , on 30 September , moored alongside for a three - week tender availability , and subsequently departed Newport on 22 October , bound for Casco Bay where she arrived the same day . She conducted Navy Day observances there on the 27th before she transited the Cape Cod Canal and arrived at New London on 12 December . She spent the remainder of the year operating on training evolutions with submarines . 1947 – 1958 . For the next 11 years , " William T . Powell " operated off the eastern seaboard of the United States ranging from Casco Bay to Cape Henry to Key West and into the West Indies and Guantanamo Bay . Her ports of call included Newport ; Norfolk ; Boston ; New York City ; Port - au - Prince , Haiti ; Culebra and San Juan , Puerto Rico ; Havana and Santiago , Cuba ; Saint Thomas , U . S . Virgin Islands ; and Nassau , Bahamas . During that period , the ship underwent several changes of status and two reclassifications . On 5 November 1948 , she was assigned to the 4th Naval District and homeported at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to serve as a Naval Reserve Training ship . On 18 March 1949 , the warship was reclassified DER - 213 . Decommissioned on 9 December 1949 , the vessel was reactivated on 28 November 1950 and resumed the role of an NRT ship . She was reclassified DE - 213 on 1 December 1954 and continued training duty until September 1957 . On 31 March 1955 the S . S . Mormacspruce , a cargo vessel and " William T . Powell " collided at approximately 2015 hrs . The Mormacspruce had bow damage and the Powell suffered severe hull damage to her aft starboard side . No one was killed , but 2 sailors on the Powell were injured . " William T . Powell " was placed out of commission , in reserve , at Philadelphia on 17 January 1958 . Final disposal . Struck from the Navy List on 1 November 1965 " William T . Powell " was sold on 3 October 1966 to the North American Smelting Company , Wilmington , Delaware , and was scrapped . Awards . Although she participated in the defense of Convoy UGS - 48 on 1 August 1944 , and was in proximity to enemy forces , " William T . Powell " inexplicably received no battle star for that action .