USS Cofer

USS Cofer (DE-208/APD-62) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1968. History USS Cofer was named in honor of John Joseph Cofer (1919–1942), who was killed in action on 13 November 1942 during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, while serving aboard the destroyer . The ship was launched on 6 September 1943 by Charleston Navy Yard, sponsored by Mrs. M. J. Cofer, mother of Seaman First Class Cofer; and commissioned on 19 January 1944. Battle of the Atlantic Cofer escorted convoys on two transatlantic crossings, between New York and Gibraltar and Norfolk, Virginia and Bizerte, Tunisia, from 23 March to 30 June 1944. Pacific War Cofer returned to New York for conversion to a Charles Lawrence-class high speed transport. She was reclassified APD-62 on 5 July 1944. She sailed from New York on 26 September 1944, and arrived at Hollandia, New Guinea, 4 November for duty with the 7th Fleet. She carried troops in one of the first resupply convoys for landings on Leyte, sailing with a group which fought its way through Japanese air attacks to arrive off the beaches on 24 November. Unloading at furious pace, Cofer was cleared the same day for Palau, where she embarked additional troops for the landings at Ormoc Bay on 7 and 8 December. On the first day, as suicide planes attacked in great number, Cofer joined in general firing, and went to the aid of sister ship , when she was damaged by a kamikaze. Cofer next came under enemy air attack on 15 December, as she landed assault troops on Mindoro.