VAMMEN DE 644

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Buckley Class Destroyer Escort Keel Laid August 1 1943 - Launched May 21 1944 USS VAMMEN DE-644 Commissioned July 27 1944 - Decommissioned February 3 1947 Underwent SCB-63A, ASW upgrade 1951 Recommissioned February 15 1952 Assigned to Naval Reserve Training (NRT) 11th Naval District at Long Beach CA May 21 1960 Decommissioned June 18 1960 VAMMEN DE-644 Placed In Service as a unit of the Select Reserve ASW Force USS VAMMEN DE-644 Recommissioned October 2 1961 - Decommissioned August 1 1962 VAMMEN DE-644 Placed In Service August 1 1962 - Out of Service July 12 1969 Stricken July 12 1969 Sunk as target February 18 1971 during testing of the Condor missile

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1    (1946-62)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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1st Commissioning July 27 1944 to February 3 1947

 

Locy Type 2z

1946-09-08

Note:

 

Locy Type 9efu

1946-09-08

Note:

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3rd Commissioning October 2 1961 to August 1 1962

 

Locy Type 2(n) (USS)

1962-05-16

Note:

 

Locy Type LDPS 2(n)

1962-08-01

Last Day of Postal Service, cachet by Morris W. Beck

 

Other Information

VAMMEN earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (w/ 1 Battle star), the World War II Victory Medal, two National Defense Service Medals, the Korean Service Medal (w/ 1 Battle star), the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the United Nations Korean Service Medal and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Ensign Clarence Earl Vammen, Jr. USN (1919-42).
On June 5 1942, while assigned to Scouting Squadron VS-6 USS ENTERPRISE CV-6, Vammen took off with eight other planes as part of the strike launched to locate and sink what had been erroneously reported as two enemy carriers. Vammen, who had never received instruction in night carrier recoveries, made his first night landing on USS HORNET CV-8. The next morning, Vammen joined HORNET's planes in attacking the fleeing Japanese heavy cruisers MOGAMI and MIKMNA, a strike that inflicted such severe damage on the latter that she sank later that day. Vammen failed to return from that mission. For his part in the Battle of Midway, he was cited for "courage and unflinching devotion to duty", and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously.

 

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