Ship's Crew
Louis Everette Wood
Rank(s): Chief Warrant Officer
Dates of Service: 12/1947 - 3/11/1950
Birth Date: 6/17/1921
Death Date: 4/13/1997
Louis Wood was born in Lockhart, South Carolina on June 17, 1921. He joined the navy a little more than 18 years later, on November 1, 1939. His earliest duty stations were the ex-battleship Wyoming (AG-51), a part of the Atlantic Fleet’s Training Squadron, and the heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (CA-37), which was on Neutrality Patrol when not employed as a VIP transport. (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sailed in her four times during the period.) Wood was aboard the cargo ship JupiterTisdale (DE-33) in 1943, and then was executive officer of the fleet tug Zuni (ATF-95) in 1944. Zuni performed two epic rescue missions in that year, first towing the heavily damaged light cruiser Houston (CL-81) more than a thousand miles from the vicinity of Okinawa to Ulithi Atoll for repair, and then proceeding to the vicinity of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines for a repeat performance with the torpedoed light cruiser Reno (CL-96).
Wood, now a chief warrant boatswain, commanded Constitution and the 1853 corvette Constellation together from December 1947 until March of 1950. During his tour, the “house” that had been built over the ship’s upper deck at the start of World War II was finally removed and new upper masts and yards installed.
Wood next served as gunnery officer and supply officer of the fleet tug Papago (ATF-160) as she went about routine operations in the Atlantic Fleet, then as legal officer of the destroyer tender Everglades (AD-24). He later served as administrative assistant at the Fleet Sonar School, Key West, Florida. Wood retired in 1966 and died in Aurora, Colorado on April 13, 1997.
