Ships
- USS La Vallette (DD-448) Captain, 1944 – 1 August 1945
Wells Thompson was born in Oregon on 19 April 1907 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the class of 1928. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 July 1936 and to lieutenant commander on 1 January 1942.
In March 1944 he became captain of the Fletcher-class destroyer La Vallette (DD-448). The ship had been commissioned at Kearny, New Jersey, in August 1942 under Harry Havelock Henderson. Thompson took her on in the Southwest Pacific as the fleet worked along the north coast of New Guinea and prepared for the return to the Philippines.
In April 1944 La Vallette bombarded Japanese positions at Aitape. On 2 July she supported the landings on Noemfoor. Between those assaults she stayed on the patrol, escort, and screening duty that filled the gaps in a long amphibious campaign.
During the opening assaults in the Philippines she escorted convoys. She was at sea with a convoy bound for Hollandia to reload when the Battle of Leyte Gulf was fought, and she was back in Philippine waters by 5 December 1944. That day her guns brought down a kamikaze in Surigao Strait. Through the rest of December and into January 1945 she covered five further landings, and in December she fired on White Beach at Mindoro. She then screened minesweepers clearing the way into Manila Bay.
On 14 February 1945, in Mariveles Harbor, La Vallette struck a mine. Six men were killed and twenty-three wounded, and the blast did heavy damage to the ship. She was taken to drydock at Subic Bay and then sailed for a full repair at the Hunters Point Navy Yard. Thompson was advanced to temporary captain on 25 March 1945. He left the ship on 1 August 1945, when Edward Isham Gibson relieved him, and he later rose to rear admiral.