Figure 1: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 22 July 1944. She is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 9D. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) moored at San Diego, California, with two other destroyers, circa 1945-46. Middle ship is USS De Haven (DD-727). Courtesy of John Hummel, 1979. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) tied up to pilings off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 3 January 1946. Note seagulls overhead and flags flying from the ship's foremast. The signal flag on the starboard halliards is "H," meaning "I have a pilot aboard." The four signal flags on the port halliards are the ship's call letters "NTHR." Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) tied up to pilings off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 3 January 1946. Note name painted on the ship's stern and flags flying from her foremast. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 5 January 1946. This view looks aft from alongside the ship's port bow, showing her anchoring gear, forward 5-inch twin gun mounts and pilothouse. Note canted angle of the Mk.12/22 radar antennas atop her Mk.37 gun director. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 5 January 1946. This view looks forward from alongside the ship's port side, showing her 26-foot motor whaleboat and 20-mm gun platform by her after smokestack. Note floater nets (with attached water casks) and boxed supplies on deck just inboard from the whaleboat. Also note empty racks for ready-service 40-mm ammunition. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 7 November 1947. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 14 November 1947. Several other destroyers are tied up nearby, among them USS Collett (DD-730), next astern from Lyman K. Swenson. Circles on the photo mark recent alterations to the ship. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) steaming through heavy seas in the Western Pacific, 1945. Photographed from USS Brush (DD-745). Courtesy of Robert O. Baumrucker, 1978. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Inchon Invasion, September 1950. Wolmi-Do Island under bombardment on 13 September 1950, two days before the landings at Inchon. Photographed from USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), one of whose 40mm gun mounts is in the foreground. Sowolmi-Do Island, connected to Wolmi-Do by a causeway, is at the right, with Inchon beyond. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: Inchon Invasion, September 1950. LCVPs head for Red Beach during initial landings at Inchon, 15 September 1950. Photographed from USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), which provided gunfire support for the Red Beach attack. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) detonates an enemy mine with rifle fire, off North Korea. Original photo is dated 14 December 1951. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: Inchon Invasion, September 1950. Four LSTs unload men and equipment while "high and dry" at low tide on Inchon's Red Beach, 16 September 1950, the day after the initial landings there. USS LST-715 is on the right end of this group, which also includes LST-611, LST-845 and one other. Another LST is beached on the tidal mud flats at the extreme right. Note bombardment damage to the building in center foreground, many trucks at work, Wolmi-Do island in the left background and the causeway connecting the island to Inchon. Ship in the far distance, just beyond the right end of Wolmi-Do, is USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: Inchon Operation, September 1950. A chaplain reads the last rites service as Lieutenant (Junior Grade) David H. Swenson is buried at sea from USS Toledo (CA-133), off Inchon, Korea. He had been killed by North Korean artillery while his ship, USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) was bombarding enemy positions on Wolmi-Do island, Inchon, on 13 September 1950. Lyman K. Swenson is in the background, with her crew at quarters on deck. Official US Navy Photograph, from the "All Hands" collection at the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 27 January 1961, following her "FRAM II" modernization. Note Destroyer Squadron Nine (DesRon9) insignia painted on her midships superstructure side. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
Figure 16: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 27 January 1961, following her "FRAM II" modernization. Note that she has not been fitted with a variable depth sonar at her stern. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 17: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) underway off Oahu, Hawaii, 16 March 1970. Photographed by PH1 Dixon M. Dreher. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 18: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) underway in the Pacific Ocean, 16 March 1970. Photographed by PHC T.J. Taylor. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 19: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) underway off Oahu, Hawaii, 16 March 1970. Photographed by PH1 Dixon M. Dreher. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 20: USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) jacket patch of the ship's insignia, as used in about 1967. Courtesy Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729) was named in honor of Captain Lyman K. Swenson (1892-1942), who was killed in action while commanding USS Juneau (CL-52) during the major naval battle off Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942. Juneau went down shortly after the end of the battle and out of 695 officers and men on board the ship only 10 survived. USS Lyman K. Swenson was a 2,200-ton Allan M. Sumner class destroyer that was built by the Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine, and was commissioned on 2 May 1944. The ship was approximately 376 feet long and 41 feet wide, had a top speed of 34 knots, and had a crew of 345 officers and men. Lyman K. Swenson was armed with six 5-inch guns, twelve 40-mm guns, eleven 20-mm guns, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes, and depth charges.
After a shakedown cruise in the Atlantic, Lyman K. Swenson was transferred to the Pacific, where she served for the next 27 years. From September 1944 to the end of the war with Japan in August 1945, Lyman K. Swenson was assigned to duties off the coasts of Leyte, Luzon, China, Indochina, and Okinawa. After the end of the war, she briefly returned to the west coast of the United States and then served in the western Pacific from 1946 to early 1947. Lyman K. Swenson then was used as a training ship for Naval Reservists off America’s west coast from 1947 to 1949.
In March 1950, Lyman K. Swenson returned to the Far East shortly before the outbreak of the Korean War. After the start of the war, Lyman K. Swenson escorted the carrier USS Boxer, which launched the first naval air strike against North Korea on 3 July 1950. Lyman K. Swenson also was assigned to plane guard and patrol duties, bombarded shore targets, and served in a supporting role in five missions along the eastern coast of North Korea.
The ship then played a major role in the famous American amphibious landing at Inchon. Lyman K. Swenson, along with five other destroyers, entered Inchon Bay two days before the landings and bombarded North Korean shore batteries. During this attack, the ship suffered two casualties from a near miss from enemy artillery. One of the men killed was Lt. (jg.) David H. Swenson, nephew of Captain Lyman K. Swenson. David Swenson was buried at sea the day after he was killed (see above photograph). On 15 September 1950, the day of the actual attack on Inchon, Lyman K. Swenson covered the amphibious landing with accurate gunfire. For their actions during the assault on Inchon, all six destroyers received the Navy Unit Commendation and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.
On 23 October 1950, Lyman K. Swenson left combat operations and went to Sasebo, Japan. She then returned to the United States, arriving at San Diego on 18 November. After an overhaul lasting seven months, Lyman K. Swenson returned to Korea on 18 June 1951. She spent two more tours of duty off the Korean coast, performing the same duties she did during her first tour of duty there. Lyman K. Swenson specialized in disrupting enemy railroad and highway transportation with her accurate gunfire, earning the praise of Vice Admiral H. M. Martin in the process.
After the Korean War ended in July 1953, Lyman K. Swenson spent approximately six months per year in the western Pacific until 1960. From 1960 to 1961, she underwent a major overhaul and modification under the “Fram II” program. Her antisubmarine capabilities were increased dramatically and she had a helicopter hanger and flight deck added toward the stern of the ship. Lyman K. Swenson completed several more tours of duty in the Far East and from 1965 to 1970 was extremely active during the war in Vietnam. Her primary assignments included shore bombardment, patrol duties, and acting as an escort for the carriers USS Independence and USS Ticonderoga. Lyman K. Swenson’s gunfire was considered so useful off the coast of Vietnam that in October 1965 she fired as much ammunition in two weeks of action as she did in two months of comparable combat duty off the coast of Korea in 1950.
USS Lyman K. Swenson was decommissioned in February 1971. In May 1974, she was sold to the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a source of spare parts for other ships of that class that were serving in its navy. It was a sad end to a notable career that spanned thirty years and three wars.
