page_title: USS Picking
section_title: 1951 – 1969
hierarchical_section_title: USS Picking / Service history / 1951 – 1969
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Picking (DD-685) underway off Oahu, Hawaii (USA), circa 1963.
context_page_description: USS Picking, a Fletcher-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Sherwood Picking, a submarine commander during World War I.
  She was decommissioned at Mare Island in 1969 not Long Beach. I was part of decommissioning crew.
context_section_description: In response to the Korean War, Picking recommissioned 26 January 1951. Following duty out of Newport, Rhode Island, she arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, 4 May 1953. Off Korea she operated with Task Forces 77 and 95, conducting shore bombardment with 95 and saved one naval aviator. Upon completion of Korean duty, she departed Sasebo, Japan on 5 August, and proceeded via the Suez Canal to Boston arriving 2 October.
  Following stateside operations in 1954, she sailed 5 January 1955 for European and Mediterranean duty. Operating out of Derry, Northern Ireland, she studied British convoy escort techniques, and then served with the 6th Fleet, before returning to Newport 26 May.
  Transferred to the Pacific Fleet, she arrived at Long Beach, California, 15 April 1956. She departed 5 June for a tour of duty with the 7th Fleet, which included a Taiwan patrol, and returned to Long Beach 18 November. Departing Long Beach 13 August, she made another tour of the Far East, and returned 24 January 1958. On her next WestPac deployment, 8 October 1958 to 27 March 1959, she operated with an antisubmarine hunter-killer group led by the aircraft carrier Yorktown. During this tour, she carried emergency supplies to the fire-damaged Japanese town of Koniya. In the fall she participated in antisubmarine exercises with Canadian forces off the west coast. From January to June 1960, and from August 1961 to February 1962, she made two more WestPac deployments. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, she escorted the aircraft carrier Ranger. East coast operations and training filled 1963.
  Deployed to the 7th Fleet on 13 March 1964, she performed escort duty off Vietnam in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident before returning to Long Beach 2 October. Sailing for WestPac 10 July 1965, she arrived at Dixie Station off Vietnam 11 September. During September and November, she bombarded enemy positions in South Vietnam. She returned to Long Beach 16 December.
  Following training and local operations in 1966, she departed for WestPac 27 December. She bombarded enemy military, naval, and logistical areas in North and South Vietnam, and destroyed several logistical craft in coastal waters off North Vietnam. Training off the west coast in antisubmarine warfare and gunnery completed 1967. In February 1968 she departed for WestPac, and arrived at Yankee Station 25 April. Following gunfire support duty off South Vietnam and a return to Yankee Station, she arrived Long Beach 17 August.
  Following duties with the Pacific Fleet in 1969, Picking decommissioned 6 September 1969 at Long Beach, Calif., and entered the Reserve Fleet. She was stricken from the Navy list 1 March 1975, and sunk as a target 27 February 1997.
caption: Picking off Oahu, 1963.
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