USS Thomason (DE-203)

History
United States
Laid down:	5 June 1943
Launched:	23 August 1943
Commissioned:	10 December 1943
Decommissioned:	22 May 1946
Struck:	30 June 1968
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 30 June 1969
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,740 tons full 1,400 tons, standard
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11.3 m)
Draft:	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:	GE turbo-electric drive, 12,000 hp (8.9 MW) two propellers
Speed:	23.6 knots (44 km/h)
Range:	4,940 nautical miles at 12 knots   (9,200 km at 22 km/h)
Complement:	15 officers, 198 men
Armament:	3 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 DP guns, 3 × 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tubes, 1 × 1.1 in (28 mm)/75 quad AA gun, 8 × 20 mm cannon, 1 × hedgehog projector, 2 × depth charge tracks, 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors

USS Thomason (DE-203) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy in World War II. She was named in honor of Marine Raider Sergeant Clyde A. Thomason (1914–1942), the first Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II — posthumously, for heroism during the Makin Island raid.

Thomason was laid down on 5 June 1943 at the Charleston Navy Yard; launched on 23 August 1943; sponsored by Miss Sara Jeanette Thomason; and commissioned on 10 December 1943, Lieutenant Commander Charles B. Henriques, USNR, in command.

The destroyer escort held shakedown training in the Bermuda area and performed convoy escort duty along the east coast from Newport, R.I., to Panama. She transited the Panama Canal on 21 March 1944 and headed for the New Hebrides. The ship called at Galapagos, the Society Islands, and Samoa before arriving at Espiritu Santo on 18 April. She joined the U.S. 3d Fleet and, in addition to performing antisubmarine duty in Indispensable Strait which separates Guadalcanal and Malaita Islands, escorted ships to Guadalcanal.

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