She aided in the establishment of the base in Subic Bay, conducted local patrols and escort missions, and escorted a troop ship to Okinawa in September, then returned to Philippine operations until 10 January 1946, when she cleared Subic Bay for home. She arrived at San Francisco 5 February, where she was decommissioned 15 April 1946. She was sold 29 June 1948. Chaffee received two battle stars for World War II service. After the war, Chaffee was transferred to the California Maritime Academy (Vallejo, CA), as were some of her sister ships transferred to other maritime academies across the country. Unfortunately, the ship did not have the capabilities to carry an entire class of Merchant Marine midshipmen on a training cruise, nor was the vessel suitable for training officers for the commercial maritime industry. In addition, due to the wear and tear of the war-time environment, the hull would have only been usable as a stationary platform. After stripping some engineering equipment off the ship for use in training students, the hulk was sold and towed away for scrap. The proceeds from the sale of the old DE were used to purchase and build a metal "Butler" building to house a machine shop (with some of the machinery from the ship). This metal ("Butler") building is still in use at the academy (2004), now as the auto shop for the cadets. References Rudderow-class destroyer escorts 1943 ships