Destroyer Squadron 57 was the next-to-last squadron of
2,100-ton Fletcher-class destroyers formed. It was composed of nine square-bridge ships as follows:
Destroyer Squadron 57
World War II Operations
- Destroyer Division 113: Rowe (DD 564), Smalley (DD 565), Stoddard (DD 566), Watts (DD 567) and Wren (DD 568), all built at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding and commissioned in March and April 1944;
- Destroyer Division 114: Bearss (DD 654) and John Hood (DD 655) from Gulf Shipbuilding and Jarvis (DD 799) and Porter (DD 800) from “Sea-Tac,” all commissioned in June and July 1944.
OPERATIONS
Following shakedown, both divisions sailed for the Aleutian islands for duty with the Ninth Fleet. There they deployed on multiple missions to the Kurile Islands.
Destroyer Squadron 57
1945
Destroyer Division 103
Rowe (DD 564), flag
Smalley (DD 565)
Stoddard (DD 566)
Watts (DD 567)
Wren (DD 568)
Destroyer Division 114
Bearss (DD 654)
John Hood (DD 655)
Jarvis (DD 799)
Porter (DD 800)
While DesDiv 114 remained on station in the Kuriles and patrolling the Sea of Okhotsk for the duration of the war, when they steamed south to Japan, DesDiv 113 was detached from the North Pacific Force on 18 April 1945.
Operating first with Ticonderoga (CV 14), these five destroyers were transferred eventually to Okinawa, where they stood radar picket duty beginning in early June. The next month, they were reassigned to operate with the Third Fleet in its raids on the Japanese home islands.
Both divisions remained in the Pacific until late in 1945.
POST-WAR
Decommissioned in 1946, they were recommissioned in the fifties.
Smalley,
John Hood,
Jarvis and
Porter earned stars in the Korean War;
Wren appeared in the 1959 film
Operation Petticoat;
Stoddard was deployed to Vietnam.
Smalley was stricken in 1964; most of the others lasted for another decade except Jarvis, which had gone to Spain in 1960 as SPS Alcalá Galiano and was retired only in 1988.
