Ships
- USS Chauncey (DD-667) Captain, 31 May 1943 – 1 November 1943
Merle Van Metre was born in Alexandria, Indiana, on 3 February 1903. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in June 1925 and went to sea as a junior officer in the battleships Texas and Nevada. In those first two years he also trained at the Naval Torpedo School in San Diego.
From 1927 to 1929 he was a division officer in the battleship New York. He then shifted to destroyers and spent about three years in Sharkey and Barney with the Scouting Fleet. In December 1939 he took command of the destroyer McCalla. In October 1940 that ship was one of fifty American destroyers turned over to the Royal Navy, which commissioned her as Stanley.
He next served as engineer officer of the cruiser Milwaukee in the Atlantic. When the United States entered the war, Milwaukee was in overhaul at the New York Navy Yard, and Van Metre was sent to help prepare the new destroyer Forrest for sea. He assumed command when Forrest was commissioned on 13 January 1942 and took her to North Africa for the landings of 8 to 11 November 1942. He left the ship in March 1943.
In April 1943 he reported to the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Kearny, New Jersey, for fitting-out duty in Chauncey. He took command of the new Fletcher-class destroyer at her commissioning on 31 May 1943, as a lieutenant commander. Chauncey cleared Norfolk on 28 August and reached Pearl Harbor on 19 September. She screened fast carriers during air strikes on Wake Island on 5 and 6 October 1943, and in that duty pulled three downed aviators from the water. His command ended on 1 November 1943. On 20 July 1943, while he still had the ship, his date of rank as captain was set.
In December 1943 he became commander of Destroyer Division 110, using Laws as flagship. For his leadership of ships attached to Carrier Division 6 during an assault on a Japanese-held island in June 1944, he received the Bronze Star Medal with Combat “V.” The ships under his direction helped shoot down enemy aircraft and supported the landing. He was also awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat “V,” and a gold star marked a second Bronze Star.
In December 1945 he was assigned as head of the Home Base Section in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In January 1950 he took command of Service Division 61 and led a task unit of the northern resupply group that carried supplies to weather stations in the Greenland region. He returned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in November 1950 as head of the Technical Planners Branch. In June 1953 he became commanding officer of the Naval Receiving Station in Washington, D.C.
Besides the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star, his service awards included the American Defense Service Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal with the Asia clasp, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon. Captain Van Metre died in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on 27 May 1968.