USS Haines (DE-792/APD-84), a , was launched by Consolidated Steel Shipbuilding Corp., Orange, Texas, on August 26, 1943. Its construction was sponsored by Mrs. Mary V. Haines, wife of the ship's name sake. The Haines was commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 on December 27, 1943 with Lieutenant Commander Elmer C. Powell in command.

Haines was named in honor of Lieutenant Richard Alexander Haines, who served aboard the when it suffered a devastating torpedo hit in the Battle of Tassafaronga

Battle of Tassafaronga

The Battle of Tassafaronga, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island or, in Japanese sources, as the , was a nighttime naval battle that took place November 30, 1942 between United States Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign...

 on November 30, 1942. Lieutenant Haines remained at his station to assist in controlling the damage until overcome by asphyxiating gas generated by the explosion. He had given his life to save his shipmates and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross

Navy Cross

The Navy Cross is the highest decoration that may be bestowed by the Department of the Navy and the second highest decoration given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard, but can be awarded to all...

 for his heroism.

Destroyer escort, 1944

Haines conducted shakedown training off Bermuda, and after final acceptance in February 1944, performed various duties until April. These included escorting a Dutch submarine to the United States from the Netherlands, sailing with a troop convoy to Panama and back, and serving as a training ship for new destroyer escort crews at Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

. Early in April, Haines assumed duty as a target towing ship at Quonset Point

Quonset Point

Quonset Point, also known simply as Quonset, is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is contained entirely within the town of North Kingstown. "Quonset" is a Native American word likely meaning "small long place".Quonset Point was the location of Naval Air...

, Rhode Island, where she helped ready young pilots for duty with American squadrons overseas

Overseas duty was not long in coming for Haines. She was soon assigned to a Mediterranean convoy, leaving from New York and arriving at Casablanca on June 7, 1944. After returning to New York, Haines again sailed for the Mediterranean on June 30, 1944, this time with a carrier task group. The group paused at Malta before proceeding to Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

, Egypt to guard against the Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

 attack on that port.

Detached from the task group, Haines next took an active part in the vast armada that invaded southern France

Operation Dragoon

Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...

. Departing Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 on August 13, she escorted troop transports to the assault area, and later acted as a screening ship for the gunfire support group offshore. Haines continued her escort duties into September as the Allied advance gained momentum, acting as escort to an LST group ferrying supplies from Corsica to France.

Haines completed her Mediterranean service on November 1, 1944 and sailed for the United States, via Oran

Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...

. She arrived at New York on December 11 and immediately entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Brooklyn Navy Yard

The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...

 for conversion into a high speed transport.

High speed transport, 1945

Completed on March 1, 1945, Haines was re-designated APD-84. She then served for several months at Norfolk and in Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 as a training ship for fast transport and destroyer escort crews.

Receiving orders to return to combat duty, Haines sailed from Norfolk for the Panama Canal on August 8, 1945. She received word of the war's end while at Cristóbal, Canal Zone

Cristóbal, Colón

Cristóbal is a port in the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. It is located on the western edge of Manzanillo Island and is part of the Panamanian city and province of Colón...

 and proceeded to San Diego, California, where she continued to Pearl Harbor in early September. Haines was then designated to transport units of the strategic bombing survey

Strategic bombing survey (Atomic attacks)

"Strategic bombing survey " was a United States Army Air Forces survey of the impact of atomic attacks in World War II in the Pacific theater.A separate report was made for the rest of the Pacific War.-External links:* *...

 team. One of the more significant things the crew of the ship had done was doing a report of Hiroshima

Hiroshima

is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

 after the atomic bomb was dropped

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

. Crew member Thomas Magnifico said "The only thing standing was a concrete smoke stack."

After extensive preparations, Haines departed from Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 for Japan on October 2, 1945. For the next two months, the ship stopped at various Japanese ports while technicians and analysts from the strategic bombing survey team gathered data on the effectiveness of the aerial bombardments. Haines was detached from this duty at Guam and departed on December 6, 1945, filled with returning Marines. She arrived at San Diego on December 24, 1945.

Decommissioning and sale

Scheduled for deactivation, Haines sailed for the East Coast via the Panama Canal, arriving in Boston on January 12, 1946. She subsequently sailed to Green Cove Springs, Florida

Green Cove Springs, Florida

Green Cove Springs is a city in Clay County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,908. It is the county seat of Clay County....

, where she was decommissioned

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

on April 29, 1946, and went into reserve. Haines was struck from the Navy List on June 1, 1960 and was sold for scrap to North American Smelting Co., on May 19, 1961.