Launched on the 5th of January 1944 and commissioned precisely four months after, the USS Cronin started her active career like most other Buckley-class destroyer escorts – with a voyage to Bizerte, accompanying a convoy in support of the Allied forces fighting in North Africa. The first notable incident she was involved in occurred during her second voyage when she rescued 24 survivors from the SS George W. McKnight. After unloading this cargo in Palermo, she was assigned to the Pacific fleet, for which she activated until the end of the war out of Leyte. After the Japanese surrender, the USS Cronin will be involved in the re-occupation of mainland China, guarding supply transports out of Okinawa, and screening for the escort carrier USS Bougainville. She was placed in reserve on the 31st of May 1946 to be recommissioned four years later as DEC-704. Short operational stints as a training vassal continued until 1971 when she was sunk for target practice by USN jets. This must have put a lot of asbestos to the bottom of the sea, as the ship contained it throughout the engine, boiler, damage control, and powder rooms. The mineral was lining every pipe running the USS Cronin, as well as every fuse box. Even her paint had asbestos mixed into it.
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