Richard Gordon Haley

The Wyman is paid for. Richard Gordon Haley

Lt. (j.g.) Richard Haley reported to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington in September, 1943 for duty aboard the U. S. S. Wyman DE-38. Assigned to hunter killer sub patrol, the U. S. S. Wyman sunk two Japanese submarines July 1944 near Eniwetok Atoll (Marshall Islands). In June 1945, the U. S. S. Wyman passed through the eye of Typhoon Cobra, also known as Halsey's Typhoon. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, U. S. S. Wyman was ordered back to the States and decommissioned in November 1945. Haley wrote many letters home to his parents, J. C. and Mae Haley, in Tacoma, Washington, 52 of which have been saved. At the end of one long letter written after the sinkings, describing the sea and shipboard life, he wrote, "The Wyman has been paid for." This signaled to the family at home that the U. S. S. Wyman had sunk a Japanese sub.