USS Dyess (DD-880)

USS Dyess (DD/DDR-880), a Gearing-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Aquilla James Dyess (1909–1944). Dyess was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his leadership of his battalion of Marines in the Battle of Kwajalein.

Dyess was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 17 August 1944, launched on 26 January 1945 by Mrs. A. J. Dyess, widow of Lieutenant Colonel Dyess and commissioned on 21 May 1945, Commander R. L. Fulton in command.

After her shakedown cruise and conversion to a radar picket destroyer, Dyess sailed from Norfolk 7 November 1945 to join the 5th Fleet at Tokyo Bay 19 December for occupation duty in the Far East. She returned to San Diego 16 December 1946, and on 6 January 1947, got underway for the east coast, arriving at Norfolk 23 January. She served in local training cruises until August of that year when she sailed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to escort President Harry S. Truman, embarked in Missouri (BB-63) as far as Norfolk, where he transferred to the Presidential yacht Williamsburg (AGC-369) which Dyess escorted to Washington, D.C.

Dyess arrived at Newport, R.I., 27 September 1947 for local training operations. After a tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean from 29 October to 14 February 1948, she returned to her home port of Norfolk. She was reclassified DDR-880 18 March 1949.

Until the end of 1958 Dyess made nine tours of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, patrolling to preserve peace and engaging in exercises with NATO forces. She also sailed on two midshipman cruises, one to southern Europe in the summer of 1948 and one to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the summer of 1951.

The remainder of her service was as varied as her capabilities. She acted as plane guard during the qualifying of pilots in carrier operations and joined in hunter-killer exercises, amphibious training, and large-scale fleet exercises. She assisted in the evacuation of American nationals from Suez during the tense situation which developed during her 1956 Mediterranean cruise. In the summer of 1958 she joined in strengthening the free world's defenses with NATO operations in northern Europe.

Dyess operated along the east coast and off Cuba in 1959, and on 25 July arrived at Charleston, S.C., her new home port. On 29 January 1960 she sailed on her tenth deployment to the Mediterranean.

Dyess returned to Charleston, S.C. in August, and in October entered Charleston Naval Shipyard, where she remained until the end of 1960.


 * [1960-1981]
 * 20 years' history, see Dyess History

Dyess was decommissioned on 27 January 1981, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 27 February 1981, transferred to Greece on 8 July 1981 and cannibalized for spare parts.