USS Rudderow (DE-224) was a United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 destroyer escort

Destroyer escort

A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...

 named after Thomas Wright Rudderow

Thomas Wright Rudderow

Thomas Wright Rudderow was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 8 August 1885. He attended the Pennsylvania Nautical School and served as navigator and watch officer in SS Adams and SS Mexico prior to assuming duties as Port Captain, Port of Philadelphia, in 1914...

. Lead ship

Lead ship

The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...

 of her class

Rudderow class destroyer escort

The Rudderow class destroyer escorts were destroyer escorts launched in the United States in 1943 to 1945. Of this class, 22 were completed as destroyer escorts, and 50 were completed as Crosley-class high speed transport and were re-classified as High speed transport APDs. One ship was converted...

, she was laid down on 15 July 1943 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, launched on 14 October 1943 and commissioned on 15 May 1944, Lieutenant-Commander Malcolm W. Greenough, USNR

United States Navy Reserve

The United States Navy Reserve, until 2005 known as the United States Naval Reserve, is the Reserve Component of the United States Navy...

, commanding.

1944–1945

She completed her shakedown trials off Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 and throughout the summer of 1944 participated in submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 hunter-killer patrols and the escort of convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

s along the East Coast of the United States

East Coast of the United States

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...

. Departing Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

 on 14 October 1944, she sailed with her division

Division (military)

A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

 (CortDiv 74) for the Pacific, passing through the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 on the 23 October and joining the 7th Fleet

United States Seventh Fleet

The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...

 at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 on 21 November.

After coastal escort duties during December, on 8 January 1945 she set sail for Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

 and on 21 January saw her convoy of landing craft

Landing craft

Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...

 safely into Lingayen Gulf

Lingayen Gulf

The Lingayen Gulf is an extension of the South China Sea on Luzon in the Philippines stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central...

. Between then and 7 February she patrolled the Lingayen anti-submarine screen before escorting landing craft to Subic Bay

Subic Bay

Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...

 and steaming back to Lingayen Gulf to cover the retirement of LST

Tank landing ship

Landing Ship, Tank was the military designation for naval vessels created during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying significant quantities of vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore....

s, LCTs, and a fleet oiler to Leyte

Leyte Island

Leyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...

. A week later she steamed into the Mindanao Sea to assist the torpedoed destroyer and escort her to San Pedro Bay

San Pedro Bay (Philippines)

San Pedro Bay is a bay in the Philippines, at the northwest end of Leyte Gulf, about 15 km east-west and 20 km north-south. The bay is bounded on the north and east by Samar and on the east by Leyte Island. It is connected by San Juanico Strait to Carigara Bay of the Samar Sea. The...

.

On the 24 February 1945, she began preparations for Operation Victor IV, the assault and occupation of Zamboanga

Zamboanga Peninsula

Zamboanga Peninsula / Western Mindanao is a peninsula and an administrative region in the Philippines. Designated as Region IX, the region consists of three provinces, namely, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga Sibugay, its component cities of Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, and...

. Setting sail on 8 March, she arrived off the landing area with echelon V-4-E early on the 10 March. As U.S. troops pushed into the Zamboangan peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

, she patrolled the Tictauran and Great Santa Cruz Island

Great Santa Cruz Island

Great Santa Cruz Island is south of downtown Zamboanga City, on the Basilan Strait....

s, retiring on 11 March and returning with a reinforcement convoy from Leyte on the 16 March. From 25 to 28 March she escorted a convoy from Puerto Princesa, Palawan to Zamboanga, then sailed north to arrive in Mangarin Bay

Mangarin Bay

Mangarin Bay is situated to the east of Mangarin Point, on the west coast of Mindoro, among the Philippine Islands. The bay is shoal and sheltered from the wind by the point and Ilin Island. Magarin point terminates in a long sandy pit off which the depth is 4 to 5 fathoms. Farther in the water...

, Mindoro

Mindoro

Mindoro is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.-History:...

 for anti-submarine patrol duty starting on 30 March.

By mid-April 1945, she was back at Leyte and by the end of the month was once more operating in the Sulu Sea

Sulu Sea

The Sulu Sea is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayas to the northeast.Sulu Sea contains a number of...

. On 5 May, she departed Tawi Tawi and headed southwest to escort a PT boat

PT boat

PT Boats were a variety of motor torpedo boat , a small, fast vessel used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". The Japanese called them "Devil Boats".The original pre–World War I torpedo boats were...

 drydock and gasoline barge being towed by the to Tarakan, Borneo

Tarakan Island

Tarakan is an island off the coast of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is a marshy island situated in the eastern Celebes Sea, off the northeastern coast of Borneo. The island occupies an area of .-Petroleum:...

. Between 8 to 11 May she escorted resupply convoys from Morotai

Morotai

Morotai Island Regency is a regency of North Maluku province, Indonesia, located on Morotai Island. The population was 54,876 in 2007.-History:...

 to Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 and on 12 to 13 May towed a damaged PBM

PBM Mariner

The Martin PBM Mariner was a patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.-Design and...

 261 miles to Tawi Tawi. She then returned briefly to the Halmahera

Halmahera

Halmahera is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia.Halmahera has a land area of 17,780 km² and a population in 1995 of 162,728...

s before setting sail for Leyte and much-needed repairs on 19 May.

She returned to sea in June 1945, escorting landing craft

Landing craft

Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...

 to Panay

Panay

Panay may refer to*Panay Island*Panay *Panay, Capiz*Panay River*Panay Gulf* USS Panay *Panay incident...

 and resupply convoys to Morotai

Morotai

Morotai Island Regency is a regency of North Maluku province, Indonesia, located on Morotai Island. The population was 54,876 in 2007.-History:...

. On the 18 June she reported for Philippine Sea Frontier

Philippine Sea Frontier

The Philippine Sea Frontier was a United States Navy Sea Frontier active in 1941, and reformed in 1944.On 8 December 1941 it was part of the 16th Naval District, a component of the United States Asiatic Fleet....

 duty and commenced inter-island escorts between Hollandia

Jayapura

Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....

 and Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

. From 27 July to 1 August she escorted reinforcements to Okinawa, then returned to the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 where she remained to the end of the year.

Decommissioning and sale

On 3 January 1946, she set sail for the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Arriving at San Diego by the end of the month, in March she was designated in reserve and was decommissioned on 15 January 1947. In May 1957 she was transferred to the San Francisco Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, where she remained until struck from the Navy List

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

 on 1 November 1969. She was then sold for scrap the following October.

Military awards and honors

During World War II, the USS Rudderow earned two battle stars.

	American Campaign Medal American Campaign Medal The American Campaign Medal was a military decoration of the United States armed forces which was first created on November 6, 1942 by issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt...
	Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal The Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal is a service decoration of the Second World War which was awarded to any member of the United States military who served in the Pacific Theater from 1941 to 1945 and was created on November 6, 1942 by issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The medal was...  (with two bronze service star Service star A service star, also referred to as a battle star, campaign star, or engagement star, is an attachment to a United States military decoration which denotes participation in military campaigns or multiple bestowals of the same award. Service stars are typically issued for campaign medals, service... s)
	World War II Victory Medal
	Philippine Liberation Medal Philippine Liberation Medal The Philippine Liberation Medal is a military award of the Republic of the Philippines which was created by an order of Commonwealth Army of the Philippines Headquarters on December 20, 1944...