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Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive

USS Lee Fox (DE 65 / APD 45)

Flag Hoist / Radio Call Sign:
N - Z - D - L

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
Second Row: European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal w/ 2 stars - World War II Victory Medal - Philippine Liberation Ribbon

Specifications:
Class: Buckley
Type: TE (turbine-electric drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1400 tons (light), 1740 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 9" (extreme)
Draft: 10' 6" (draft limit)
Propulsion: 2 "D" Express boilers, G.E. turbines with electric drive, 12000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 24 kts
Range: 6,000 nm @ 12 knots
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Complement: 15 / 198

Lee Fox (DE 65) Building and Operational Data:

01 March 1943: Keel laid by the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc., Hingham, Mass.

29 May 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. Lee Fox, mother of Ensign Fox

30 August 1943: Commissioned at Hingham, Mass., Lcdr W. C. Jennings in command

15 February 1945: Commenced conversion to APD at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

23 February 1945: Reclassified APD 45

13 May 1946: Decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla. after 2 years and 8½ months of service

01 September 1964: Struck from the NVR

31 January 1966: Sold for scrapping to the Southern Scrap Material Co., New Orleans, La.

Size	Image Description	Contributed By And/Or Copyright
48k	Lee Fox, Jr. was born on 11 January 1920 at Rock Island, III. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Fox of New Cumberland, Pa., and prepared for college at New Cumberland High School. He attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania for two years, and then transferred to Franklin and Marshall for his last year. He began his flight training in the Civil Aeronautics Course as an undergraduate at Franklin and Marshall College. Appointed an aviation cadet in the Naval Reserve on 09 January 1941, he won his pilot’s wings at Pensacola and was commissioned an ensign on 05 August. After brief service on the west coast, he reported for duty in Hawaii on 17 September and served with Patrol Squadron 12 until his death. Lee was reported lost during the heroic defense of the U.S. Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, during the Japanese sneak attack of Pearl Harbor on 07 December 1941. His body was never recovered following the attack and he was presumed killed in action. Ensign Fox was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. USS *Lee Fox* (DE 65) (1943-1946) was the first ship to be named in his honor. (Photo courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA)	Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal.
100k	15 July 1943: Hingham, Mass. - USS *Amesbury* (DE 66) and USS *Lee Fox* (DE 65) in the background during the handing over and commissioning ceremony for HMS *Calder. (Photo from the private collection of* Electrical Artificer Ron Ayres as printed in "The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War" by Donald Collingwood)	Bob Hurst Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
135k	22 July 1944: the Atlantic Ocean - USS *Lee Fox* (DE 65) underway off New York City. Photographed from a plane based at Naval Air Station, New York. (U.S. Navy Photograph #NH 107426, from the collections of* the Naval History and Heritage Command)*	Bob Hurst Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
17k	undated wartime image (U.S. Navy photo from the National Archives)	-

Lee Fox History
View the USS Lee Fox (DE 65 / APD 45) DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command web site.

Lee Fox's Commanding Officers
Thanks to Wolfgang Hechler & Ron Reeves

Dates of Command	Commanding Officers
1.) 30 Aug. 1943 - 22 Dec. 1943	Lcdr. William Croft Jennings (Comm. CO) (USNA '27) (Bishopville, S.C.) (ret. as Radm.)
2.) 22 Dec. 1943 - 11 Oct. 1944	Lcdr. William Graham Claytor, Jr., USNR (Roanoke, Va.) (became SecNav '77)
3.) 11 Oct. 1944 - 20 Oct. 1945	Lcdr. John Howard Uhl, USNR
4.) 20 Oct. 1945 - .. Mar. 1946	Lt. Beckwith Roger Bronson, USNR (Chicago, Ill.)
5.) .. Mar. 1946 - 13 May 1946	Lcdr. Richard Joseph Dressling (Decomm. CO) (Oroville, Cal.)

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

None

Note About Contacts

Contact information is compiled from various sources over a period of time and may, or may not, be correct. Every effort has
been made to list the newest contact. However, our entry is only as good as the latest information that's been sent to us. We list
only a contact for the ship if one has been sent to us. We do NOT have crew lists, rosters, or deck logs available. Please see the
Frequently Asked Questions section on NavSource's Main Page for that information.

Additional Resources

Tin Can Sailors
The U.S. Navy Memorial
Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
The Destroyer Escort Historical Museum
The Destroyer History Foundation

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