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Korean War 1951–1953

On 25 June 1950 North Korean military forces, supported by the Soviet Union and China, crossed the 38th Parallel into South Korea, prompting the United Nations Security Council to dispatch forces to Korea to repel the invasion. At the same time, the United States government was concerned about the danger posed by the Soviet Union’s increasing submarine forces, because the United States Navy was limited in its anti-submarine warfare capability. An immediate answer was to recall to active duty many Fletcher Class destroyers. This included USS Taylor, which was moved from her reserve berth in San Diego to the San Francisco Naval Shipyard on 9 May 1950. Three days later she began conversion to an escort destroyer, to be designated DDE 468 on 2 January 1951. The conversion included, among other things, removal of three of the five five-inch gun mounts; installation of the anti-submarine warfare Weapon Alpha; and increasing the ship’s speed to over forty knots. On 3 December 1951 Taylor was recommissioned at San Francisco, under the command of CDR Sheldon H. Kinney. Taylor would soon be at war once more.