William M Wood (DDR 715) - Naval Cruise Book

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COMMANDER JOHN S. SLAUGI-ITBP. UNITED STATES NAVY

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DD's of the U. S. Navy are named after Navy and Marine heroes, Naval Inventors and Secretaries of the Navy. The USS W. M. WOOD was named in honor of Dr. W. M. Wood who was the first Surgeon General of the U. S. Navy and the fifth Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland May 27, 1809 and died at his home, Owing Mills, Baltimore County, Maryland, March 1, 1880 after a varied and un- usual career in the U. S. Navy. He saw duty during the supression of piracy, the slave trade, the Seminole War and the Mexican and Civil Wars. UNITED STATES SHIP WILLIAM M. wooo QDDR-7151 The USS WILLIAM M. WOOD was built by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Com- pany ofKearny, NewJersey. Her keelwas laid on November 2, 1944 and she was launched on July 29, 1945. Since she was completed at the close of World War II, the WOOD took part in no major engagements, but after a Caribbean Shakedown was assigned to the Pacific Fleet. Oper- ating out of Tsingtao, China, she patrolled Chinese and Korean waters until February of 1947 when she returned to Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California. Three months' overhaul made her ready to join Task Force 38 for a cruise which took her across the South Pacific from Sydney, Australia to Yokosuka, Japan. At the end of this cruise she was awarded the Navy E for battle efficiency. Upon returning to California, the WOOD was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet and on October 21, 1949 steamed into Newport, R. I. to be used as a DesLant school ship and la- ter to participate in Fleet Amphibious and Anti-submarine operations. The WOOD made her first Mediterranean cruise in August of 1950 following which she served as plane guard to the USS MONTEREY engaged in Naval Aviator qualifications off Pensacola. Her second Mediterranean cruise came in January of 1952, when she operated with the Sixth Fleet in combined exercises with the NATO Navies. In addition to the usual Mediterranean ports of call, she visited Germany, Belgium and Great Britain before re- turning to Newport. In August of 1952 the WOOD accompanied the USS MIDWAY to Halifax, N. S. , and la- ter put into Boston for conversion to a radar picket ship. She was decommissioned on October 2, 1952, and spent several months undergoing conversion and renovation at the Boston Naval Shipyard. The WOOD was recommissioned on June 6, 1953 as a radar picket destroyer. In July, she went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a Shakedown cruise of three months. In Novemb- er, she steamed out of Norfolk in company with the USS TARAWA on her third Mediterra- nean cruise, her first as a radar picket vessel. After engaging in operations with the Sixth Fleet, she returned to Norfolk, in early February. ,. .

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John Sim Slaughter was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1914. Prior to entering the Navy he attended Central High School in Muskogee, Oklahoma and Halls Preparatory School in Col- umbia, Missouri. He was appointed to the U. S. Naval Academy and was graduated with the class of 1937 and commissioned with the rank of En- sign. After commissioning he was assigned to the USS CHESTER QCA-275. He spent two years aboard and was then transferred to the Asiatic Fleet and served aboard the USS JOHN D. FORD QDD-228l. He remained aboard the FORD dur- ing the first part of the war and participated in the battles of Makassar Straits, Bodoeng Straits, and the Java Sea. He left this destroyer after commanding it for nine months and was assigned to a newer destroyer, the USS WELLES QDD-6283, as Commanding Officer. While CO ofthe WELLES, it participated in the invasions ofPe1eliu, IwoJ ima, Leyte, including the battle for Leyte Gulf, Luzon and Okinawa. After the war, he went to shore duty with the NROTC Unit at the University of Missouri, then as op- erations officer ofthe USS SPRINGFIELD QCL- 66y. Upon completion of the latter assignment in 1950, he reported for duty in Washington, D.C. with OPNAV. In June 1953 he became Commanding Officer of the USS Wm. M. WOOD. 1 N W , , . . .... . ,C - Y . -.Z,4aa..' .- -, .4 K- f'sL x,3u..