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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Jeffers (DD 621)
ex-DMS-27
ex-DD-621



Call sign:
November - Bravo - Victor - Foxtrot
Gleaves Class Destroyer/Ellyson Class Highspeed Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 25 March 1942 at Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corp., Kearny, NJ
  • Launched 26 August 1942
  • Commissioned USS Jeffers (DD-621), 5 November 1942
  • Reclassified and converted to a Highspeed Minesweeper, DMS-27, 15 November 1944
  • Decommissioned 23 May 1955 at Charleston, SC and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet Charleston Group
  • Reclassified back to a Destroyer, DD-621, 15 June 1955
  • Moved to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet Texas Group, Orange, TX
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 July 1971
  • Sold for scrap 1 May 1973 to the Southern Scrap Materials of New Orleans, LA for $98,888.88 by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,630 t.(lt), 2,200 t.(fl)
  • Length 348' 3"
  • Beam 36' 1"
  • Draft 13' 9"
  • Speed 37 kts.
  • Complement 272
  • Armament: Three 5"/38 dual purpose gun mounts and two quad 40mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Four Babcock and Wilcox boilers, two 50,000shp Westinghouse turbines, DeLaval double reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Jeffers (DD 621)
    Jeffers 83k 6 January 1943
    Off New York Navy Yard
    National Archives photo 19-N-40461    		 Joe Radigan
    USS Jeffers (DMS 27)
    Jeffers 72k - Gene Fanton, PCC, USN, Ret.
    Jeffers 152k c. April 1945
    Jeffers is seen from USS Santee (CVE 29) to starboard of an unidentified oiler. Of the square-bridge Gleaves class DMS conversions, Jeffers and Harding [DMS 28] were among the earliest to be redeployed to combat at Okinawa. Jeffers is wearing the distinctive 3d reverse camouflage pattern
    National Archives photo 80-G-335569    		 John Chiquoine
    Jeffers 422k Aerial view of Jeffers' post war configuration.
    U.S. Navy photo DD 621-1 DMS-27 from the collection of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum    		 Darryl Baker
    Jeffers 232k Underway, 23 July 1951
    National Archives photo 80-G-479910 from the Naval Historical Center    		 Robert Hurst
    - USNA Class of 1942
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR William Thomas McGarry, USN - USNA Class of 19275 November 1942 - 26 August 1943
    02CDR Leo William Nilon, USN - USNA Class of 1927
    Awarded two Silver Stars (1944) and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal (1944) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		26 August 1943 - 2 May 1944
    03CDR Hugh Quinn Murray, USN - USNA Class of 1934
    Awarded two Silver Stars (1944/1945) and the Bronze Star
    Retired as Captain    		2 May 1944 - 28 May 1945
    04LCDR Robert D. Elder, Jr., USNR28 May 1945 - 19 October 1945
    05LCDR Richard Joseph Smith, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 194119 October 1945 - 17 February 1947
    06LCDR John Paul Howatt, USN - USNA Class of 194017 February 1947 - 1949
    07CDR Richard Herbert Tibbetts, USNJune 1951
    08CDR John Robert Welsh, USNAugust 1952
    09CDR Coleman Hurdleston Smith, USN1954
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Jeffers (DMS-27)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    NavSource DD Pages, USS Jeffers (DD-621)
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Highspeed Minesweeper (DMS) Photo Index
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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo & maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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