Ships
- USS Wedderburn (DD-684) Captain, 9 March 1944 – 10 August 1944
John Lester Wilfong was born in Yakima, Washington, on 5 September 1902. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1926. He was promoted to lieutenant on 30 June 1936 and to lieutenant commander on 1 April 1941. On 15 August 1942 he received a temporary appointment as commander, the rank he held through the rest of his wartime sea commands.
On 19 July 1941 he took command of the destroyer minesweeper Wasmuth (DMS-15), then operating from Pearl Harbor. He was in command on the morning of 7 December 1941, when Wasmuth, lying in the harbor, fired on the attacking Japanese aircraft. His wife, Gladys, had brought their sons to Honolulu that autumn to be nearer the ship, and she took the boys back to the West Coast soon after the attack. Wilfong left Wasmuth on 29 June 1942.
His next ship was the destroyer Lang (DD-399), which he commanded from 10 October 1942 to 19 October 1943 during the fighting in the Solomon Islands. On the night of 6–7 August 1943, Lang was one of six American destroyers that met a Japanese force in Vella Gulf. The American ships attacked with torpedoes and sank three Japanese destroyers. Lang finished the action with no damage and no one lost. Wilfong received the Navy Cross for the way he handled the ship that night.
On 9 March 1944 he commissioned the new Fletcher-class destroyer Wedderburn (DD-684) at the Bethlehem Steel yard in San Francisco. Gertrude F. Wedderburn, mother of the officer for whom the ship was named, sponsored the ship. Wedderburn ran shakedown training along the West Coast, returned to the yard for a short availability, and sailed from San Francisco on 21 June 1944 with the escort vessel Fieberling. Six days later the two ships entered Pearl Harbor. Wedderburn then joined Task Unit 19.3.2 for a brief tour of plane-guard and antisubmarine duty.
Wilfong’s command of Wedderburn ended on 10 August 1944. Charles Hansford Kendall succeeded him as commanding officer, and Robert William Clark commanded the destroyer later in the war. Wilfong reported to the staff of Commander, Amphibious Group Six, as communications officer and served there from 15 August 1944 to 12 June 1945. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for that staff duty. He remained in the Navy after the war. On 1 April 1948 he was appointed a temporary captain.