in CENTO Exercise Midlink III, in which the naval forces of five nations participated. In November 1960, the ship returned to Mediterranean and western European waters, and took part in ASW Exercises "Hay-strike" and "Jetstream" with French Navy units before returning to Newport on 15 December 1960. She then conducted ASW exercises out of Mayport, Florida, and practiced recovery techniques for participation in Project Mercury, the first American manned spaceflight program. Attached to TG 140.8, Wadleigh was on station on 5 May 1961 when Comdr. Alan Shepard conducted his history-making flight. A second participation by Wadleigh in the Project Mercury program came in August of that year, but unfavorable weather "scrubbed" the launch, and the destroyer was detached to return to Newport. Late in the following fall, Wadleigh sailed for European waters once more and participated in Exercise Line Jug II—extensive ASW exercises with Royal Navy units. She topped this deployment with visits to ports in the British Isles like Londonderry and Southampton before returning to her home port on 22 February 1962. She conducted routine local operations until departing Newport on 22 June for Norfolk, Virginia. There, the ship was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 28 June 1962. Honors and awards Wadleigh received six battle stars for her service in World War II. Chilean service Wadleigh was transferred to Chile under the Military Aid Program in 1963. The ship was renamed Blanco Encalada''' and was given identification number 14.Blanco Encalada was decommissioned and stricken in 1982, and on 28 September 1991 was sunk off southern Chile by a Harpoon missile launched from the Spruance''-class destroyer during an Operation Unitas XXXII exercise. References External links navsource.org: USS Wadleigh hazegray.org: USS Wadleigh Fletcher-class destroyers of the United States Navy Ships built in Bath, Maine 1943 ships World War II destroyers of the United States Cold War destroyers of the United States Fletcher-class destroyers of the Chilean Navy Maritime incidents in 1962 Ships sunk as targets Maritime incidents in 1991