duties. While coming under fierce air attack, the battle-hardened DD gave as good as she received, downing and assisting in the kill of several Japanese planes. Detached from duty there 29 May, Hickox proceeded to Guam and from there sailed for home via San Pedro and Pearl Harbor. Steaming under the Golden Gate Bridge 6 July, the veteran warrior underwent repairs, her first since departing the States 18 months earlier, and was still there when the long Pacific war ended 2 September with the signing of the armistice in Tokyo Bay. Hickox decommissioned and went into reserve at San Diego 10 December 1946. 1951–1957 Hickox recommissioned 19 May 1951, following the outbreak of the Korea War that accelerated the need for seapower. She arrived Newport, Rhode Island, her new home port, 13 October to join the Atlantic Fleet. After tactical exercises along the coast and in the Caribbean, she and the other destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 20 (DesRon 20) sailed 6 September on what was to become an around-the-world cruise. Hickox spent two winter months on duty off Korea screening the fast carriers of Task Force 77, furnishing gunfire support, and patrolling along the peninsula. She and her sister ships returned to Newport in April 1953 via Singapore, Calcutta, Ceylon, Naples, and Gibraltar to terminate their 7½-month cruise. Further exercises occupied her until 8 September 1954, when Hickox sailed for a 5-month cruise to Northern and Mediterranean Europe. NATO and fleet maneuvers as well as good-will visits consumed most of Hickoxs tour, see inset pics. Returning to the States 7 February 1955, Hickox made one more Mediterranean cruise in the summer of 1957 during which she stood by in the eastern Mediterranean to prevent further unrest and bloodshed in the wake of an attempted coup against King Hussein of Jordan. Returning to the States 30 August, Hickox sailed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania two weeks later and decommissioned there to join the Atlantic Reserve Fleet 20 December 1957. ROKS Pusan Hickox was transferred to South Korea 15 November 1968, where she served in the Republic of Korea Navy as ROKS Pusan, named after the city of Pusan. Pusan was stricken and broken up for scrap in 1989. Awards Hickox received nine battle stars for World War II service and two for Korean War service. References External links navsource.org: USS Hickox hazegray.org: USS Hickox Fletcher-class destroyers of the United States Navy Ships built