USS Walter C. Wann (DE-412) was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort built by Brown Shipbuilding at their yard in Houston, Texas.

In June 1969 Walter C. Wann was sold to the National Metal and Steel Company, Terminal Island, California for scrap and broken up.

Walter C. Wann soon joined Abercrombie and McCoy Reynolds in antisubmarine patrols on the Aruba-Canal Zone tanker route as TU 05.3.2 as a result of increased U-boat activity in the vicinity.

Walter C. Wann and her sister ship picked up all 40 survivors; and McCoy Reynolds prepared to tow the plane to port, but the arrival of SC-1281 on the scene obviated her undertaking that task.

Walter C. Wann, in company with LeRay Wilson and McCoy Reynolds, departed Balboa on 29 July; proceeded to the California coast, and arrived at San Diego on 6 August.

While en route to the launching areas off Leyte Gulf, a tropical disturbance of near-typhoon intensity struck the task group on 17 October.

Arriving back off Samar on 25 October to commence the day's air strikes, TG 77.4 received reconnaissance reports indicating the closing presence of a large Japanese surface force; and, by 0700, the northern carrier group, TU 77.4.3, was under attack.

While the destroyers of the southern group prepared to make smoke and dash in, in a suicidal torpedo attack, Walter C. Wann and her sister ships formed a circular screen around the highly vulnerable escort carriers.

Air strikes and torpedo attacks had by 1100 diverted the Japanese from the carriers, and the range opened to 40 miles (64 km), thus ending the immediate threat to the southern group.

While she lay anchored off Lingayen, Walter C. Wann provided antiaircraft fire in attempts to repel Japanese kamikaze attacks.

However, despite the intense antiaircraft fire, one plane succeeded in crashing into the cruiser USS Columbia some 1,500 yards (1,400 m) ahead of the destroyer escort.

Walter C. Wann conducted local operations and convoy escort missions between Dutch New Guinea and Philippine waters into the late winter of 1944 and 1945.

Approaching Okinawa Shima with the invasion force on the morning of D day, 1 April, her task unit was deployed to their respective screening stations—Walter C. Wann taking station A-29.

At about 500 yards (460 m) away, the dive bomber faltered, pulled up slightly, and crossed the ship in a steep vertical bank before crashing 20 feet (6.1 m) off the port bow.

Walter C. Wann remained on patrol off Okinawa until 14 April, when she sailed for Guam in company with the battleships Nevada and Maryland, and the cruiser Pensacola, as TU 51.29.14, escorting a convoy of transports.

Arriving at Apra Harbor, Guam, on 19 April, Walter C. Wann effected battle damage repairs until 6 May, when she sailed for Saipan in the Marianas.

Walter C. Wann remained engaged in screening operations for the remainder of the war and was at anchor in Buckner Bay when word of the Japanese surrender first came through.

The 6th Army landed without incident to occupy the key Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe area, and Walter C. Wann later rendered plane-guard duties for Suwannee off the Hiroshima-Kure occupation zone.

On 4 November, in company with CortDiv 69, the destroyer escort got underway from Yokosuka, bound, via Pearl Harbor, for San Diego, California.