A Destroyer Escort in North Korea (Story)

By Richard P. Kay – June 2026 – Naval History

On 25 June 1950, the North Korean People’s Army surged across the 38th parallel into South Korea, and by August the NKPA had pushed Republic of Korea, U.S., and United Nations forces deep into the southern zone of the Korean peninsula.

Seeking to halt that advance, General Douglas MacArthur on 15 September carried out Operation Chromite, a bold amphibious landing on the west coast of Korea at Inchon. South Korean and UN forces, spearheaded by the U.S. Eighth Army, then counterattacked out of the Pusan Perimeter. After U.S. landings at Chinnampo and Wonsan, the NKPA was pushed back across the 38th parallel.

By November, U.S. Marine Corps and Army forces had advanced as far as the Chosin Reservoir and within 70 miles of the border with China. But in late November, the intervention of more than 300,000 Chinese Communist troops brought the UN counteroffensive to an abrupt halt, resulting in a general withdrawal and the separation of UN forces on the west coast from those on the east coast. The Chinese counteroffensive encircled and threatened to destroy the 1st Marine Division and Army units at Chosin Reservoir, and UN forces were forced to withdraw within a defense perimeter that included the Hungnam area. What followed was a brutal, bitter, wintertime fighting withdrawal from Chosin Reservoir to Hungnam Harbor.

The Navy in Korea

Because North Korea and China lacked significant surface or submarine warfare capabilities, the U.S. Navy’s combat operations during the Korean War consisted primarily of carrier-based attacks on enemy forces, logistics centers, and infrastructure, as well as close air support, coastal bombardment, minesweeping, interdiction, blockade, and reconnaissance. Large warships were heavily engaged—carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and minesweepers—and historians have given considerable attention to their role. Yet, smaller surface combatants also were essential, as were ships for underway replenishment, fleet logistical support, and transport.¹

One of those smaller warships was the USS Foss (DE-59).

The USS Foss

The Foss was a Buckley-class destroyer escort launched at Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyards in Hingham, Massachusetts, on 10 April 1943.² She was named for Rodney Shelton Foss, who was born in Monticello, Arkansas, on 17 August 1919. Foss enlisted in the Naval Reserve in September 1940 and was commissioned an Ensign on 12 June 1941. He was killed in action at Naval Station, Kaneohe, Oahu, on 7 December 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor. His mother, Mrs. George R. Ross, sponsored the ship, which was commissioned 23 July 1943, with Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander J. J. Jordy commanding.³

With a length of 306 feet, beam of 36 feet, and a standard displacement of 1,400 tons, the Buckley-class had twin screws and rudders and a specified maximum speed of 24 knots—though reportedly she could achieve more than 27 knots.⁴ The Foss was armed with three 3-inch/50-caliber Mk 22 guns in open mounts, a quad 1.1-inch Mk2 automatic machine cannon (the “Chicago Piano”), 20-mm Oerlikons, and three 21-inch torpedo tubes, as well as depth charge tracks, depth charge throwers, and a hedgehog launcher forward. The ship had a complement of 186 officers and men.

Destroyer escorts were small warships that were relatively inexpensive and simple to produce, with prefabricated hull sections welded together at various shipyards. Designed specifically for the vital antisubmarine mission in the north Atlantic, they also served with distinction in the Pacific. The escorts were slower than larger fleet destroyers and had a tighter turning radius, which was an advantage for antisubmarine warfare.

The speed required for fleet destroyers made their power plants complicated and expensive—they were steam turbines with reduction gearing. Early destroyer escorts were equipped with diesel-electric power, which eliminated the requirement for main reduction gears.

However, wartime demands limited the supply of diesels for the destroyer escort program, and consequently the ships steamed several knots slower than planned. The later Buckley-class units were equipped with a more readily available turbine-electric drive and were known as the “TE” class.⁵ These ships had oil-fired boilers, producing steam for the turbine generators powering the electric propulsion motors.

The plant consisted of two nearly identical units comprising a high-pressure, superheater boiler in a fire room and a main General Electric 4,600-kilowatt steam turbine generator, synchronous propulsion motor, and motor-generator set in an adjacent engine room. Each propeller shaft was driven by a turbine generator turning at 5,600 rpm at full speed, and each unit could provide parallel power to both shafts through a cross-connection. In combination, this could produce nearly the same shaft horsepower that diesels would have provided.⁶

Power Ashore

Turbine electric power in naval vessels first entered the fleet in 1913 in a collier, the USS Jupiter (later CV-1, the USS Langley). It later powered New Mexico and Tennessee-class battleships and the aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3). In the 1930s, the Navy worked with the railroads to jointly develop diesel-electric power plants that would power both steam locomotives and fleet submarines.

These power plants proved able to provide power ashore. In one example that foreshadowed the Foss’ future role, the Lexington helped provide power to the city of Tacoma, Washington, between 15 December 1929 and 17 January 1930 after a drought dramatically reduced the city’s hydroelectric output. The ship ultimately supplied a total of 4,250,960 kw-hours of energy.⁷ The power plants could do this because the ship’s power was already being converted to electricity. Late in World War II and shortly thereafter, seven Buckley-class destroyer escorts were converted to provide electrical power to shore in support of amphibious operations.⁸ After conversion, these power-supply destroyer escorts were designated “TEG” for turbo-electric generator.

TEG equipment included two large cable reels and an enclosed substation consisting of a transformer, switch gear, and water-cooling equipment added amidships in the position formerly occupied by the torpedo tubes. TEG destroyer escorts were designed to provide six different voltages ranging from 2,400 to 37,500.⁹

The Foss at War

The Foss sailed from Boston on 22 September 1943 for the Dutch West Indies to escort a tanker convoy back to New York—the primary purpose for which she had been built. In October, she put to sea again to escort a group of tankers to Aruba, and then on to Dakar, Oran, and Algiers before returning to New York. Between 26 December 1943 and 9 October 1944, the Foss operated on the New York–Londonderry convoy route, making seven voyages in support of the buildup of forces for the Normandy invasion and post-invasion needs.

The Foss was then assigned to operational antisubmarine warfare activities and, for the next six years, sailed from various East Coast ports, including New London, Charleston, and Norfolk, testing equipment for the Naval Research Laboratory and conducting operations for the Fleet Sonar School, the Antisubmarine Development Detachment, and the Operational Development Force.

By 1946, her torpedo tubes had been removed to allow the mounting of 40-mm Bofors mounts amidship. However, two such mounts were cleared to allow installation of the shore power conversion equipment—transformers and cable reels—needed to deliver power at high voltages over relatively long distances.¹⁰ The Foss retained a single quad 40-mm gun mount on the aft deckhouse.

The Foss first used her shore power capability during the winter of 1947–48, when she provided Portland, Maine, with emergency electric power after the city’s supply was disrupted by severe drought and forest fires.

The Foss then participated in rocket experiments off Cape Canaveral in August 1950, recording seaward firings. While homeported at Key West, Florida, the ship was ordered to sail to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for the installation of additional electrical cable reels and other equipment. The installation took about six weeks, and the Foss was then reassigned to the Pacific Fleet, sailing from Norfolk on 29 September 1950 and reaching San Diego on 11 October.¹¹

Six days later, under the commander of Lieutenant Commander Henry J. Ereckson, she sailed for the Far East. The ship arrived in Yokosuka and soon left for Pusan on the east coast of Korea. By early November 1950, the Foss was on the west coast of Korea, well north of Inchon, providing shore power at Chinnampo, a major port city at the mouth of the Taedong River, approximately 50 kilometers southwest of Pyongyang.¹²

As recalled by Ensign Charles L. Culwell, then the Foss’ supply officer, Chinnampo’s harbor was situated about 50 miles up the Taedong, and the Foss was required to navigate the long and largely unmarked river.¹³ At times, a crewman was stationed on the bow with a lead line to test the depth of the channel. After a lengthy and harrowing transit, the Foss arrived at Chinnampo in mid-November, moored at a former coaling pier, and reeled out its big cables to connect to a terminal and start generating power. The goal was to turn the lights on in Chinnampo by Thanksgiving Day. She accomplished her mission. On 23 November, the crew enjoyed a turkey and ham Thanksgiving meal.¹⁴ 

At Chinnampo, the Foss was less than 150 miles from the border with China demarked by the Yalu River. In late November, Chinese forces entered the war and UN forces fell back across the theater of operations.

At 0236 on 4 December 1950, Ereckson reported that the situation at Chinnampo was deteriorating but that he would remain on station to provide power for as long as possible, evacuating Eighth Army personnel if necessary and escorting any remaining ships.¹⁵

A New Assignment

While the Foss’ crew disconnected the power and retrieved the cables in advance of getting underway, Captain Ereckson was informed of an engine room casualty, which wound up taking hours to repair. However, with troops forming a defensive perimeter around Pyongyang, there was time both to unhook the power equipment and repair the engine.¹⁶ Other UN naval forces, including transports, continued to arrive and load for the retrograde movement from Chinnampo. At 1730 on 4 December, the Foss got underway and escorted the USS Bexar (APA-237), the last of the transports, downstream.¹⁷

Together with other UN warships, the Foss was under orders to use its guns to destroy Chinnampo’s port infrastructure and vessels along the river. The Foss employed its 3-inch guns while sailing back down the Taedong River, frequently running aground. Fortunately, the ship sustained no casualties during the withdrawal.¹⁸    

The Foss arrived at Inchon on 6 December 1950.¹⁹ After refueling, she immediately sailed south and to the east coast of Korea.  She headed for the port of Hungnam with the assignment to provide electric power for lighting, communications, heat, as well as medical care—the Foss had an assigned doctor—and naval gunfire as needed. For the Hungnam redeployment, the Foss was assigned to Task Force 90 under the operational control of Commander Amphibious Group 1 (Rear Admiral James H. Doyle) and subordinated to Task Element 95.6 and its minesweeping units.²⁰  She arrived at Hungnam on 9 December and reported to Task Force 90 for operational control.²¹ On arrival, the Foss refueled from the USS Mount McKinley (AGC-7). At 0908, she berthed at a pier to provide shore power to the Army.²²

The Foss was the sole vessel moored at No. 2 Dock in the inner Hungnam Harbor. She was berthed directly across from the headquarters of General Edward M. Almond and across the harbor from Green One and Green Two.²³   

As Lieutenant (junior grade) Kimber L. White, the Foss’ executive officer, wrote:

Our mission was to go to Hungnam and provide electricity to the evacuation port. As we proceeded south at night through a maze of small islands, the weather was bitterly cold. I recall that, enroute to Hungnam, I came off the bridge with about four inches of snow on my shoulders. Upon reaching the harbor at Hungnam, we were ordered to moor alongside a very fine wharf which extended along the waterfront. During this period, Lt. Gen. [Edward M.] Almond, commander of X Corps, had his headquarters across the street from FOSS. General Almond and some of his staff, with khaki colored towels across their arms, would come over for a welcomed opportunity to take a hot shower.²⁴

While continuing to supply shoreside power alongside the pier, the Foss refueled from the USS Glendale (PF-36) on 13 December 1950.²⁵

Another Redeployment

By 19 December, the situation had further deteriorated. With the U.S. Marines and Army retreating into Hungnam, X Corp’s command post transferred to the Mount McKinley.²⁶ The Foss remained pierside, continuing her power supply duties.

By 22 December, the final plan had been promulgated for the redeployment of the last elements ashore and vessels afloat at Hungnam. All shipping was ordered to clear dock areas by 2320 on 24 December. The Foss received orders to discontinue shoreside electrical supply once the last ship left the dock.

Once she was ready to sail, the Foss was to get underway and proceed out of the swept channel of Hungnam Harbor.²⁷ With the docks empty and all preparations completed for the final embarkation of X Corps, at 0001 on 24 December, the Foss discontinued electrical service.²⁸ At 0335, the ship got underway and stood out to establish a submarine barrier patrol at the entrance to the swept channel.²⁹

As recalled by Ensign Culwell, the Foss was the last U.S. Navy ship to leave the port of Hungnam. Culwell witnessed the explosive destruction of the tall smokestack, which is immortalized in a photograph of the Foss. 

Together with other ships of TF 90, the Foss proceeded to Ulsan Man, arriving there on 25 December. At 0820 on 26 December, the Foss again went alongside the anchored Mount McKinley to refuel. The Foss remained there providing power for an Army unit until 18 August 1951.³⁰

During 14 days at Hungnam, the U.S. Navy, together with the Military Sea Transportation Service, more than 60 chartered merchant ships, and dozens of U.S. and Japanese-manned landing ships, embarked and transported some 105,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 91,000 civilians, 17,500 vehicles, and 350,000 tons of cargo during the redeployment from Hungnam Harbor.³¹ It was a well-planned and organized sealift operation that allowed UN forces to survive, regroup, and ultimately push Communist forces back across the 38th Parallel. 

Going Back Home

The Foss returned to San Diego on 10 September 1951 and served in ordnance tests until 21 September; Pearl Harbor then became her new home port. She operated in Hawaiian waters for the next five years, made two cruises to patrol islands of the Pacific Trust Territory, and served two tours of duty in the Far East, including service as a station ship at Hong Kong in 1955.

In June 1957, the Foss returned to the West Coast for decommissioning and was placed in reserve at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 30 October 1957. On 6 September 1966, the Foss was sunk as a target by the USS Sabalo (SS-302) off the coast of California.³²

The Foss earned one battle star for her Korean War service.

Family Ties

My father, Captain Maurice Kaye, a combat infantry officer and World War II veteran, was a staff officer with X Corps at General Almond’s headquarters during the Hungnam redeployment. Grateful for the medical treatment he received on board the Foss, Captain Kaye often remarked how he and his fellow soldiers were treated by the Navy “as brothers-at-arms.” He had great respect for those who served in the U.S. Navy and a particular fondness for the Foss and her crew. A Zippo lighter given to him by a crew member remains a special memento from his wartime service.³³

Some years ago, retired Rear Admiral J. Robert Lunney during a meeting mentioned his experience as a Merchant Marine officer on board the SS Meredith Victory, a freighter that evacuated more than 14,000 Korean refugees from Hungnam in one voyage. It was the largest humanitarian rescue operation by a single ship, which earned the well-deserved description “Ship of Miracles.”³⁴ I shared my father’s experience on board the Foss with Admiral Lunney, who specifically recalled seeing a small warship docked across Hungnam harbor and wondering what “all those wires” coming out of her were for.

In preparing this article, I also had the opportunity to contact Dr. Donald Chisholm, a professor in the Joint Military Operations Department at the U.S. Naval War College. Chisholm graciously provided me with key documents, including the TF 90 operation order and action report and a detailed chronology by Rear Admiral Doyle, Commander of TF 90. The materials contained numerous references to the Foss at Hungnam Harbor. Professor Chisholm’s father, Naval Reserve Commander William K. Chisholm, was a logistics officer and staff navigator with TF 90 on the Mount Mckinley during the Hungnam redeployment.

It is enormously gratifying that, by virtue of our respective fathers’ service at Hungnam Harbor, each son developed a deep devotion to the U.S. Navy and its history.   

1. Paul Edwards, Small United States and United Nations Warships in the Korean War (London, UK: McFarland & Co., 2008).
2. “Destroyer Escort Classes,” USS Slater Museum, “Motor Room,” USS Slater Museum.
3. Naval History Division, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Vol. II (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963).
4. B. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999), 17.
5. Destroyer Escorts of World War Two (The Floating Drydock, 1987), 15.
6. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 12, 14.
7. David Doyle, USS Lexington CV-2 (Squadron/Signal Publications, 2013), 57.
8. The other six vessels were the USS Donnell (DE-56), USS Whitehurst (DE-634), USS Wiseman (DE-667), USS Marsh (DE-699), and two British lend-lease ships: HMS Spragge (K-572, ex-DE-563) and HMS Hotham (K-583 ex-DE-574).
9. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 50, citing John A. Miller, Men and Volts at War: The Story of General Electric in World War II (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1947), 123. Miller stated that the Foss was converted in 1949, but that conflicts with other sources including Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, which states that the conversion to TEG took place in 1946.
10. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 104.
11. Charles Louis Culwell, personal narrative, U.S. Navy Supply Officer, USS Foss (DE-59), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 11 December 2011, AFC/2001/001/86088.
12. Chinnampo was the name of the city during the Japanese occupation of Korea; it is now known as Nampo.
13. The location of the dock where the Foss moored is not confirmed, so Ensign Culwell’s recollection of the length of Foss’s journey up the Taedong may be somewhat misstated.
14. Culwell, personal narrative, 11 December 2011.
15. J. Field, History of United States Naval Operations – Korea (Washington, DC: Navy Department, 1962), 272.
16. Culwell, personal narrative, 11 December 2011.
17. Field, History of United States Naval Operations – Korea, 273–274.
18. Culwell, personal narrative, 11 December 2011.
19. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 93.
20. M. Cagle and F. Manson, The Sea War in Korea (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1957), 512, 515.
21. Commander Amphibious Group One (Commander Task Force Ninety), Action Report—Hungnam Operation, 9 December 1950 through 25 December 1950, to Chief of Naval Operations, dated 21 January 1951, 4; and Culwell, personal narrative, 11 December 2011.
22. Commander Amphibious Group One, War Diary, December 1950, transmitted to Chief of Naval Operations, 15 January 1951, 18.
23. Cagle and Manson, The Sea War in Korea, 185.
24. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 93.
25. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 32.
26. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 44.
27. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 52.
28. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 56–57.
29. Franklin, The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts, 58. Soviet submarines were considered a real threat during the Korean War; there were more than 70 sightings of Soviet submarines within range of U.S. forces during the first three months of the war, of which about two dozen were confirmed. During the Hungnam operation, U.S. destroyers “held down” and depth-charged what they believed to be a Soviet submarine for two days in Korean waters, which turned out to be a previously uncharted Japanese merchant ship sunk during World War II.
30. Culwell, personal narrative, 11 December 2011. According to Ensign Culwell, Foss sailed from Hungnam to a village named Chang Wang Po Dong, about 50 miles from Pusan, and after creating a mooring system to steady the ship, spent the next 8 months providing electrical power to Army units stationed in the village.
31. U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force transport aircraft lifted an additional 3,600 troops, 196 vehicles, and 1,300 tons of cargo from Yongpo Airfield adjacent to Hungnam.
32. “USS Foss,” Wikipedia; Edwards, Small United States and United Nations Warships in the Korean War, 44, states that Foss was sold for scrap in June 1966.
33. Culwell, personal narrative, 11 December 2011. Ensign Culwell recalled that the ship’s 1950 Thanksgiving Day dinner folder referred to Foss as an “EDE,” and she was called “an experimental DE.” The designation may reflect her electrical supply capability, an “experimental” mission, or her earlier assignment to the Naval Research Laboratory and involvement in anti-submarine warfare technology.
34. Bill Gilbert, Ship of Miracles (Triumph Books, 2000).

Richard Kaye

Richard P. Kaye is an attorney in White Plains, New York. A graduate of Clark University who earned his law degree from George Washington University Law School in 1978, he is a member of numerous naval and maritime organizations, including the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States, the U.S. Navy League, Friends of the American Merchant Marine Museum, the U.S. Naval Institute, and the Historic Naval Ships Association, as well as being active in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary (Stamford, CT flotilla). He serves on several nationally recognized naval history book award committees sponsored by the Naval Order of the United States and the Navy League.