USS Hissem (DE-400/DER-400) was an Edsall class destroyer escort of the United States Navy. Hissem was constructed in 1943 as DE-400. In 1955, the vessel was equipped with modern radars, and the designation was changed to DER-400. The special purpose of DER (Destroyer Escort Radar picket) ships was the detection of aircraft. Their chief role was to extend the DEW line out into the N. Atlantic and the N. Pacific oceans. Namesake Joseph Metcalf Hissem was born on 31 December 1917 in Mount Carroll, Illinois. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 9 January 1941. Following flight training he was appointed Ensign on 30 August 1941. Though he was assigned to a patrol squadron in Hawaii, he volunteered for temporary duty with Torpedo Squadron 8. In the first attack in the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942 Hissem and his squadron took off from and without fighter protection pressed home an attack on the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers until all were shot down. Although no ships were sunk in the attack, they diverted air cover and forced a re-arming of Japanese planes which brought victory for the U.S. fleet. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and the Purple Heart. History Hissem was launched by Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, Texas, 26 December 1943; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth D. Hissem, sister of Ensign Hissem; and commissioned 13 January 1944. Following a shakedown cruise to Bermuda, Hissem steamed via Charleston, South Carolina to New York, where she arrived 20 March 1944. Her first combat duty was as an escort ship with convoy UGS-37, carrying vitally needed troops and supplies to the Mediterranean. The convoy departed Norfolk, Virginia 23 March and entered the Mediterranean Sea without attack. Then near Algiers the night of 11–12 April the Luftwaffe attacked. About 35 bombers and torpedo planes struck in a coordinated attack, and were repulsed by accurate gunnery and evasive chemical smoke. Hissem's gun crews splashed one torpedo plane and damaged another, as the escorts prevented damage to the huge convoy of transports. The only ship struck was escort ship , torpedoed but able to make port. Subsequently, Hissem performed regular escort duty across the Atlantic interspersed with anti-submarine and anti-aircraft training on the East Coast of the United States. The ship transported over 500 paratroopers in March 1945, taking them on board in the Azores, transferring them to SS Althone Castle, and