Side-by-side with battleship Missouri as lead elements of the victorious Allied Third Fleet entered Japanese waters in peace at the end of World War II was a single destroyer escort conversion, the fast transport USS Gosselin.

Laid down as Rudderow-class DE 710 on 17 February 1944 at Defoe Shipbuilding Co., Bay City, Michigan and launched 4 May, Gosselin was sponsored by Mrs. E. N. Gosselin, mother of Ensign Gosselin. In July, she was redesignated APD 126 and completed as a Crosley-class high speed transport. She commissioned 31 December, LCdr. Joseph B. Fyffe in command.

After shakedown off Bermuda and Chesapeake Bay, Gosselin cleared Norfolk 16 February 1945 for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. Touching at Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, and Ulithi, she made Okinawa on 6 April and commenced screening the invasion area there.

From then until 17 August, the “Goose” remained on station at Okinawa with two interruptions: escorting a convoy assignment to Guam and Saipan, 10–27 April, and retiring to Leyte Gulf for maintenance, 1 June–17 July. In the meantime, she took Japanese planes under fire on several occasions, shooting down one and rescuing survivors and casualties from ships that had been hit.

END OF THE WAR
On 17 August with Reeves, Gosselin departed Okinawa to rendezvous with the Third Fleet off Honshu. Over the next three weeks, she played a prominent role in events surrounding the surrender of Japan:

• On 27 August, with press representatives and Navy photographers embarked, she joined Adm. William F. Halsey’s Flagship Task Group with destroyers Nicholas, Taylor, O’Bannon, Stockham, Waldron, Compton, HMS Wager and HMS Whelp escorting battleships Missouri (Admiral Halsey), Iowa (Rear Admiral Badger), and HMS Duke of York (Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, R.N.) and thus became one of the first Allied ships to enter Japanese coastal waters in peace at Sagami Wan.
• On 28 August, she became one of the first ships to continue into Tokyo Bay in a formation with Southerland, Twining, Wedderburn, cruiser San Diego and other ships transporting a Naval Assault Battalion to occupy the Yokosuka Naval Base.
• On 29 August, she was transferred to a task group commanded by Commodore Rodger W. Simpson in cruiser San Juan, assigned to liberate and evacuate prisoners of war. That day, her boats were first to reach the Omori Camp and bring out the first prisoner evacuees.

From 27 September through 15 December 1945, Gosselin was berthed at the Port Director’s office, Yokosuka, and used as a barracks ship for shore-based and transient personnel. She then sailed for Eniwetok, Pearl Harbor and San Francisco, where she discharged her passengers 28 December.

POST WAR
Gosselin remained in the United States until 22 August 1946 when she cleared San Diego with Navy and Marine replacements bound for Yokosuka via Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok. Discharging her passengers at Yokosuka 13 December, Gosselin returned to San Diego 16 November 1946. She operated out of there until 16 July 1948, when she departed again for the Orient. Arriving Tsingtao, China on 14 August, she made this her base of operations while visiting such ports as Shanghai and Nanking and occasionally operating in the Yangtze River during American efforts to stabilize the situation in China.

Gosselin departed Shanghai 18 February 1949 and reached San Diego 11 March. She decommissioned there 11 July 1949 and was placed out of commission in reserve. She berthed with the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, until struck from the Navy List 1 April 1964. She was sold for scrapping on 23 March 1965.

Gosselin earned one star on her Asiatic-Pacific campaign medal for World War II service.