USS Newell ( DE - 322 ) USS " Newell " ( DE 322 ) was an Edsall - class destroyer escort built for the U . S . Navy during World War II . She served in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys . Post war , she served in various capacities before being finally decommissioned . She was named in honor of Lt . Comdr . Byron Bruce Newell who was killed during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands . She was laid down 5 April 1943 by the Consolidated Steel Co . , Orange , Texas ; launched 29 June 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . Byron B . Newell , wife of Lt . Comdr . Newell ; and commissioned 30 October 1943 , Lt . Comdr . Russel J . Roberts , USCG , in command . World War II North Atlantic operations . The new destroyer escort got under way 17 November 1943 for shakedown out of Bermuda . " Newell " then sailed , via Charleston , South Carolina . , to Norfolk , Virginia , to train pre - commissioning crews for sister ships of her division . Two weeks , later , , " Newell " , , , and had assembled and the first convoy voyage began . The division safely escorted a convoy to Casablanca and back . Attacked by Luftwaffe planes . Her second transatlantic voyage took " Newell " to Bizerte . Two days past Gibraltar , during a twilight alert 20 April 1944 , German planes hit the convoy with a torpedo attack . At 21 : 00 , five planes were reported about six miles distant dead ahead . Four minutes later a terrific explosion occurred in the center of the convoy . At the same time three planes came in at about 40 feet above the water , cutting between " Newell " and . All starboard 20 millimeter guns and the 40 millimeter gun opened fire . Three of the 20s and the 40s were hitting the after plane repeatedly and it swerved off to port and probably exploded , as two German aviators were picked up in this area . Gun number 3 observed planes coming in aft and opened up , immediately followed by the 40 millimeter gun . The planes were driven off to " Newell ' s " port . Rescuing survivors from the water . At 21 : 14 planes were sighted dead ahead . Guns 1 and 2 opened fire along with the forward 20 millimeter guns , blanketing the incoming planes which turned sharply northward . At 21 : 18 while " Newell " was closing the convoy , " Lansdale " broke in two and sank . " Newell " and " Menges " picked up 119 survivors . The ships then searched the area for additional survivors for three hours . Many members of " Newell ' s " crew went over the side to bring on board survivors too weak to swim to the ship . The ship with three other DE ' s then towed merchant ships to Algiers , where the survivors were discharged . The escorts then caught up with the convoy , which had proceeded to Bizerte . German torpedoes sink ships . After ten days in Bizerte , the convoy started the long trek home . On the second night underway , " Menges " was torpedoed while tracking down a target , and on the next night " Fechtler " received a torpedo hit amidships , sinking her . " Menges " was towed to port and received another stern . The ship then made two more round trips to Bizerte and two to Oran . Assigned special duty . In February 1945 , after the last of her six convoy trips , " Newell " reported to Norfolk , Virginia , for special duty in the Operational Training Command , Atlantic Fleet . She tested sonobuoys , determined the minimum speed possible for DEs while dropping various types of depth charges , and trained newly commissioned officers . In April , " Newell " steamed to Florida , where she acted as escort and plane guard for a carrier training pilots . During this period , the ship recovered six downed pilots from the water . This assignment lasted until she sailed for New York on 3 June . " Newell " sailed to Panama on 18 June , where she helped train submarines and remained on this duty through the summer and the Japanese surrender . On 20 October orders arrived sending the destroyer escort to Charleston , South Carolina . , where she decommissioned 20 November 1945 and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet . Temporary duty with the Coast Guard . " Newell " recommissioned in the U . S . Coast Guard 20 July 1951 , steamed to Chesapeake Bay for shakedown , then transited the Panama Canal and proceeded to Mare Island Naval Shipyard for post activation overhaul and conversion to a WDE - type ship for ocean station search and rescue duty . Yard work completed , she steamed to Hawaii for operational training . She arrived on her first ocean station 27 April and for the next year and a half operated out of Pearl Harbor in the northwestern Pacific , ranging north to the Aleutians and west to Japan . Following first phase inactivation at Pearl Harbor the DE arrived Long Beach , California , 21 February 1954 , decommissioned 31 March , and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet . Converted as a radar picket ship . Fitted out with the latest electronic equipment , manned for the first time by a Navy crew and reclassified DER – 322 , " Newell " recommissioned at Long Beach 20 August 1957 , and steamed to her new home port , Pearl Harbor . She soon took up station on the Pacific Barrier , the westward extension of the DEW Line . For over seven years she alternated duty at Pearl Harbor with patrols on the Pacific Barrier . During this period she also served in operation Cosmos , the escort line for President Eisenhower ' s flight to the Far East in the spring of 1960 ; and provided weather surveillance for Johnston Island / Christmas Island nuclear tests . On 15 April 1965 , " Newell " departed Pearl Harbor for her 28th Pacific Barrier patrol , the last picket ship to steam for the Pacific Barrier which " Newell " helped to formally terminate in a ceremony at Midway Island 1 May . The radar picket escort vessel then returned to Pearl Harbor to prepare for a WestPac deployment . Vietnam Crisis operations . " Newell " got underway 17 May for Vietnam via Guam , Subic Bay and Hong Kong . On her first Operation Market Time patrol , just north of the Mekong Delta , she searched many junks and several steel hulled vessels to help stop infiltration of arms , ammunition , and supplies into South Vietnam to support Viet Cong forces . After upkeep at Subic Bay , her second patrol took her between Da Nang and Nha Trong . She worked closely with Vietnamese junk forces , Vietnamese Navy Sea Forces , U . S . Coast Guard cutters and other American Navy sea and air forces . On her third patrol , she operated between Vũng Tàu and An Thoi ; and her guns destroyed a Viet Cong shelter on the Island of Phu Quoc . Her fourth and fifth patrols took her to the coast between Nha Trang and Da Nang . While on patrol off Viet Nam , she spent 155 days on station , detected 6 , 905 wooden hulls , inspected 2 , 472 , and boarded 631 . She detected 384 steel - hulled ships , inspected 67 , and boarded 6 . On New Year ' s Day , 1966 " Newell " departed the " Market Time " area and sailed via Subic Bay and Japan , for home , arriving Pearl Harbor 3 February . After operations in Hawaiian waters , she headed back to the western Pacific 6 June . In addition to " Market Time " duty she supported smaller Coast Guard and Navy ships . On her third patrol she guarded the 17th parallel to stop infiltration from the North . She departed Vũng Tàu on the last day of 1966 and sailed via Japan for Hawaii , arriving Pearl Harbor 19 January 1967 . Underway 6 July for her third WestPac deployment . " Newell " spent much of July and August on Taiwan patrol before turning toward Vietnam on the 27th . She arrived " Market Time " Area 11 on 30 August and departed on 19 September for Kaohsiung , to resume Taiwan patrol . She headed back toward the Vietnamese coast on the last day of October and relieved on Market Time Area II , 2 November . " Newell " departed Vietnam for the last time on the 28th , and steamed for Hawaii via Hong Kong ; Subic Bay ; Sydney , Australia ; and Suva , Fiji Islands arriving Pearl Harbor 29 February 1968 . Final decommissioning . After operations in Hawaiian waters , " Newell " departed Pearl Harbor 6 August for WestPac , but three days later received orders to return for inactivation . She decommissioned at Pearl Harbor 21 September 1968 , and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 23 September 1968 . Hollywood operations . Subsequently the ship ' s engines were removed and her hull was used by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp . , 22 January to 15 April 1969 during the filming of motion picture " Tora ! Tora ! Tora ! " .