USS Thompson (DMS-38)

History
Thompson refuels from Arkansas in April 1944, while crossing the Atlantic for the Normandy invasion.

Name:	Thompson
Namesake:	Robert Means Thompson
Builder:	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down:	22 September 1941
Launched:	15 July 1942
Commissioned:	10 July 1943
Reclassified:	DMS-38, 30 May 1945
Decommissioned:	18 May 1954
Struck:	1 July 1971
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 7 August 1972
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,630 tons
Length:	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam:	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft:	11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion:	50,000 shp (37 MW); 4 boilers; 2 propellers
Speed:	37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range:	6,500 nautical miles at 12 kt (12,000 km at 22 km/h)
Complement:	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament:	4 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber DP guns 4 × 40 mm (2×2) and 7 × 20 mm (5×1) AA guns, 5× 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tubes (1x5; 5 Mark 15 torpedoes) 6 × depth charge projectors, 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Thompson (DD-627 (later DMS-38) was first a Gleaves-class destroyer, then became an Ellyson-class destroyer minesweeper. She was the second Navy ship named "Thompson", and the first named in honor of Robert M. Thompson.

The keel of the second Thompson was laid down on 22 September 1941, at Seattle, Washington, by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation. She was launched on 15 July 1942, sponsored by Miss Sara Thompson Ross, and commissioned on 10 July 1943, with Lieutenant Commander Lee A. Ellis in command.

Following operations along the west coast, Thompson departed San Diego, on 19 August, bound for the east coast. She arrived at Norfolk, Virginia on 1 September, prior to departing the next day for the coast of Maine and arriving at Casco Bay on 3 September. The destroyer then headed south to the Boston Navy Yard where she underwent repairs. She next engaged in exercises off the Massachusetts coast before returning to Casco Bay on 23 September for training.

On 5 October, she escorted Arkansas into New York and joined the screen for Texas for nine days of exercises in shore bombardment and other drills before joining convoy UGS-21 which sailed from Norfolk, bound for North Africa. Thompson served as an escort, keeping ships in the channel as they plodded out to sea and prodding them to close up and keep in formation, while her echo-ranging gear was alert for prowling submarines off Chesapeake Bay. One day out, 16 October, (UGS.21 sailed from Hampton Roads on 5 November, and therefore I believe this to be 6 November) the wind and sea rose, presaging a heavy storm which served to scatter parts of the convoy and cause Thompson to note in her log numerous times, "telling stragglers to close up." After the transatlantic voyage, Thompson was released from escort duty on 31 October, to proceed to Casablanca, French Morocco.

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Wikipedia