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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Butler (DMS-29)
ex-DD-636



Call sign:
Nan - Uncle - Love - Yoke
Gleaves Class Destroyer/Ellyson Class Highspeed Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 16 September 1941 by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA
  • Launched, 12 February 1942
  • Commissioned USS Butler (DD-636), 15 August 1942
  • Reclassified and converted to a Highspeed Minesweeper, DMS-29, 15 November 1944
  • Decommissioned, 8 November 1945
  • Struck from the Navy Register 28 November 1945
  • Sold for scrap 10 January 1948.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,630 t.(lt), 2,200 t.(fl)
  • Length 348' 3"
  • Beam 36' 1"
  • Draft 13' 9"
  • Speed 37.4 kts.
  • Complement 272
  • Armament: Three 5"/38 dual purpose gun mounts, two quad 40mm mounts, five 20mm mounts, six depth charge projectors, two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Four Babcock and Wilcox boilers, two 50,000shp General Electric geared turbines, De Laval double reduction gears, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Butler (DD 636)
    Butler 131 Murphy (DD 603), Gherardi (DD 637), Butler, Herndon (DD 638) and Earle (DD 635)
    From the collection of Clifton Leon Prewitt, Fire Controlman Third Class    		 Bobby Kleinaman
    (C. L. Prewitt's grandson)
    Butler 111 6 October 1942
    Off Philadelphia Navy Yard
    National Archives photo 19-N-39869    		 Joe Radigan
    Butler 66k U. S. Navy photo from the October 1947 edition of All Hands magazine Joe Radigan
    USS Butler (DMS 29)
    Butler 145 ©John Robert Barrett
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Mitchell Dudley Matthews, USN - USNA Class of 1927
    Awarded the Legion of Merit    		15 August 1942 - 17 September 1944
    02CDR Robert Messinger Hinckley, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 193517 September 1944 - 8 November 1945
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Butler (DMS-29)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    NavSource DD Pages, USS Butler (DD-636)
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back To The High Speed 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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