05/12/2025
Eighty years ago today, the Coast Guard manned, USS VANCE, captured U-873, four days after VE-Day. The ship remembered Joseph Williams Vance, Jr., who was born on 4 December 1918, in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Southwestern University, in Memphis, from 1936 to 1938, and later the University of Florida in Gainesville. Joining the Naval Reserve on 26 July 1940, Vance was commissioned an ensign on 28 February 1941, Vance drew Asiatic Fleet duty and joined USS PARROTT (DD-218).
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Parrott and her sister ships operated in the Netherlands East Indies archipelago until the fall of Java. They participated in the Battle of Makassar Strait on 24 January 1942, and the Battle of Badoeng Strait on 20 February 1942.
During the Battle if Nakassar Strait, PARROT’S torpedo sank, the transport SUMANOURA MAURU. Within minutes, Parrott teamed up with POPE (DD-225) and PAUL JONES (DD-230), to sink the TAKSUKAMI MARU. Vance received a bronze star for his contributions to this action.
Vance remained in Parrott through the spring, when he received a promotion to lieutenant (junior grade) on 15 June 1942. As allied forces prepared for the invasion of Guadalcanal, Vance received orders to HMAS CANBERRA, as liaison officer. During the Battle of Savo Island, a force of Japanese cruisers surprised the Allies in a night attack, and sank four cruisers, including CANBERRA.
A veritable hail of shells reduced CANBERRA to a blazing wreck. During the engagement, Lt. (jg.) Vance was killed in action.
His namesake was the EDSALL Class, USS VANCE (DE-387). She was laid down on 30 April 1943, in Houston, Texas, by the Brown Shipbuilding Co. She was launched on 16 July 1943, and was sponsored by Mrs. John W. Vance, the mother of the late Lt. (jg.) Vance. The ship was commissioned on 1 November 1943, with Lcdr. Eric A. Anderson, USCG, in command.
Following shakedown off Bermuda, VANCE became the flagship for Es**rt Division 45, a Coast Guard-manned unit. VANCE then convoyed a group of oil tankers from Norfolk, Va., to Port Arthur, Tex., and back. Upon her return to Norfolk, she served as a training ship for destroyer es**rt crews, while awaiting the arrival of the rest of her division.
In February 1944, she joined Convoy UGS-33, bound for Gibraltar. On 7 March, VANCE departed Casablanca with GUS-33 for the return voyage, and put into the New York Navy Yard on the 23d for availability.
VANCE next got underway on 12 April, with the other ships of CortDiv 45, to screen the 102 merchantmen of convoy UGS-39 to Tunisia. Arriving in Bizerte on 3 May, the warship left Tunisian waters eight days later, bound for New York with GUS-39. Off Oran on the 14th, a German U-boat slipped through the screen of es**rts and torpedoed two merchantmen.
VANCE, holding the rear position of the screen, came up through the convoy, sighted the periscope, and attempted to ram. The U-boat "pulled the plug" and dove deeper, evading the onrushing es**rt's sharp bow. VANCE remained on the scene for 10 hours, subjecting the U-boat to depth-charge and hedgehog attacks, until relieved by a squadron of Navy destroyers. Three days later, after an extensive hunt, the relief ships sank U-616.
Altogether, VANCE made eight round-trip voyages to the western Mediterranean, and followed each with availability at either Boston or New York. On 14 July 1944, VANCE helped to fight off a German air attack against an Allied convoy off Oran. Carrying the division doctor on board, VANCE, on occasion, would take on board men from other ships for medical treatment.
On 2 May 1945, VANCE departed New York with her last Mediterranean-bound convoy. On the morning of 11 May, four days after Germany had surrendered, VANCE sighted a light up ahead in the convoy, and rang down full speed to investigate. Upon closing the light, the destroyer es**rt discovered a surfaced U-boat, U-873, which had been at sea for 50 days. While the submarine began to run, VANCE hailed the erstwhile enemy in German by bullhorn, ordering the submariners to heave to. VANCE placed a prize crew on board the captured U-boat, who delivered the prize at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 16th.
VANCE arrived too late to participate in Pacific operations, and returned to the east coast for decommissioning. In mid-October 1945, she underwent a pre-deactivation availability, before proceeding south to Green Cove Springs, Florida. On 27 February 1946, VANCE was decommissioned and placed in reserve.
In November 1955, VANCE was towed to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for conversion to a radar picket destroyer es**rt. The extensive alterations involved the addition of improved air-search radar, extensive communications equipment, and complete facilities for fighter-direction operations. Designated DER-387, VANCE was recommissioned on 5 October 1956 at Mare Island, with Lcdr. Albert M. Brouner in command.
Between March of 1957 and the end of the year, VANCE was homeported in Seattle, Wash., as a unit of CortDiv 5, and completed eight patrols on various stations of the Radar Early Warning System in the northern Pacific. On 1 June 1958, the radar picket es**rt ship's home port was changed to Pearl Harbor; and she began operating with CortRon 7. VANCE took station on the mid-Pacific stretch of ocean, on her DEW-line deployments.
In May of I960 she rejoined CortDiv 5, and served with her old unit into 1961. On occasion, the picket ship took Russian trawlers under surveillance. Early in 1961, VANCE's communications capabilities were extensively augmented during an overhaul in Pearl Harbor In August 1961, she was assigned as an ocean station vessel with TF-43, Operation "Deepfreeze 62." Temporarily based in Dunedin, New Zealand, VANCE served as a communication relay ship for aircraft bringing in vital supplies to the Antarctic stations from New Zealand. She remained on station in the cold, bleak, southern waters into March 1962, when she headed home.
She then resumed duties on the DEW-line and, except for periodic interruptions for maintenance, replenishment, and training, devoted herself to the task of operating mainly off the Aleutian Islands through February 1965.
As the need for radar pickets decreased, in 1965, VANCE was ordered to Vietnam in company with Brister (DER-327) and Forster (DER-334). VANCE took station in Operation "Market Time" on 11 April 1965. From that day until the 24th, she operated near the 17th parallel as a part of Task Unit (TU) 71.1.1. VANCE operated doing ship's "visit and search" activities. She continued these activities until sailing for Hawaii early, and arrived in Pearl Harbor on the 18 September 1965.
VANCE returned to "Market Time" station in mid-January 1966, operating with Navy Swift Boats and Coast Guard WPB's in interdicting communist coastal supply traffic, often boarding 30 vessels per day.
Off Binh Dinh, she closed to investigate a trawler and came under fire from Viet Cong ashore. Although the ship's skin was pocked by bullets, VANCE briskly returned the fire with her 3-inch battery, driving away or killing the unseen but pestiferous snipers. In a more humanitarian vein, VANCE and a "Swift" rescued 56 men, women, and children from a swamped boat near Qui Nhon. On 6 August 1966, VANCE sailed again via the Philippines for Pearl Harbor.
On 15 January 1967, VANCE returned to the Far East for another 7th Fleet deployment. In late 1967, the ship began her final WestPac deployment, in which her duties were similar to those of her third deployment. She subsequently returned to the west coast of the United States late in 1968 for inactivation.
The official NHHC History makes no mention of the ninety days of Marcus Arnheiter in early 1966, so we’ll just let that go with, “If you know, you know.”
Placed in reserve, at the Inactive Ship Facility, Vallejo, VANCE was decommissioned on 10 October 1969, and struck from the Navy list on 1 June 1975. Assigned to the Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, California, the ship served as a target until finally sunk in 1985.
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