USS George (DE-697)

Career
Ordered:	1942
Laid down:	22 May 1943
Launched:	14 August 1943
Commissioned:	20 November 1943
Decommissioned:	8 October 1958
Struck:	1 November 1969
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 12 October 1970
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,400 tons light, 1,673 tons standard
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11.3 m)
Draft:	13.5 ft (4.1 m)
Propulsion:	2 boilers, General Electric Turbo-electric drive 2 solid manganese-bronze 3600 lb 3-bladed propellers, 8.5 ft. diameter, 7 ft 7 inch pitch 12,000 hp (8.9 MW) 2 rudders
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h)
Complement:	186
Armament:	3 x 3 in/50 cal (76.2 mm) 4 x 1.1 in/40 (1x4) 8 x 20 mm (8x1) 3 x 21 in torpedo tubes (1x3) 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds) 8 depth charge projectors (8x1) 2 depth charge racks

George was named after Eugene Frank George, who was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on 23 April 1925, enlisted in the Navy on 18 May 1942, and reported for duty onboard the heavy cruiser San Francisco at Pearl Harbor on 17 July. As an anti-aircraft gunner, he participated in the bitterly-fought naval engagements against the Japanese off the Solomon Islands following the American invasion of Guadalcanal on 7 August. On 12 November, San Francisco and other ships of Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner's Task Force 67 formed a protective screen off Lunga Point while troop reinforcements debarked from the transports and landed on Guadalcanal. During early afternoon, a force of enemy fighters and bombers attacked the ships, but effective anti-aircraft fire and air cover repelled the attack and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy planes. One torpedo-bomber, damaged by anti-aircraft fire from the screening ships, crashed San Francisco, destroying the after control station and demolishing three 20mm gun mounts. Seaman George, who courageously refused to abandon his gun in spite of the onrushing plane, blazed away at the attacker until killed by the doomed aircraft. For his grim perserverance and relentless devotion to duty in the face of certain death, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

A first destroyer escort, DE-276 was laid down as George on 20 May 1943 at the Boston Navy Yard. She was transferred to the United Kingdom under Lend-Lease on 9 October 1943, and commissioned in the British Royal Navy as HMS Goodson.

A second ship named George (DE-697) was laid down on 22 May 1943 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan. The ship was launched on 14 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Harlow F. George, the mother of Seaman Second Class George; and commissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana on 20 November 1943, with Lileutenant Commander J. B. Page in command.

After shakedown off Bermuda, George sailed from Boston on 11 January 1944 to escort a merchantman from Norfolk to Noumea, New Caledonia, where she arrived on 19 February. Until the spring of 1944, George escorted transports to the Admiralties, the New Hebrides, and the Solomons during consolidation operations in the Solomons. On 16 May, she sailed from Florida Island, in the Solomons, in a hunter-killer group with England and Raby on what was to become one of the most successful antisubmarine actions in the Pacific war.

During this patrol from 19 Mayto 31 May, the three-ship team sank six Japanese submarines (I-16, RO-106, RO-104, RO-116, RO-108, and RO-105) in waters north of the Bismarck Archipelago. George arrived at Manus on 4 June after this feat, and during the next 3 months, she conducted anti-submarine patrols and escorted merchantmen to the New Hebrides, the Solomons, and the Marshall Islands. After serving briefly as station-ship at Funafuti, Ellice Islands, she steamed to Australia, arriving at Sydney on 12 October.

After returning to Purvis Bay, Florida Island, on 28 October, George resumed anti-submarine patrols and escorted convoys to New Guinea, Manus, Guam, and Saipan. During the liberation of the Philippines, she escorted convoys out of Ulithi, and in February 1945, she escorted ships from Guam to Iwo Jima during the invasion and occupation of that embattled island. In addition, she served as air-sea rescue station, and on 18 April 1945, she rescued three survivors from a B-29 forced to ditch off Iwo Jima.

During the summer of 1945, she made two escort voyages to Okinawa, one each from Ulithi and Guam; and, after the Japanese surrender, she delivered surrender terms on 12 September to the Japanese garrison stationed on Truk, Carolines. She departed Guam on 18 September, and sailed for the United States, where she arrived at San Pedro, California, on 5 October.

Between 10 March 1946 and 9 April 1947, George deployed with the 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific. She operated along the Japanese coast and steamed to Tsingtao and Shanghai, China, where she supported American and Chinese Nationalist troops during occupation operations against the Communists in North China. From 1947 to 1951, she served with Escort Division 31, attached to the Fleet Sonar School at Pearl Harbor. George moved to San Diego with the Fleet Sonar School in 1951, and served there until undergoing overhaul at Pearl Harbor in the spring of 1953. Following return to San Diego in September 1953, she sailed for Sasebo, Japan, on 10 November, and conducted hunter-killer and screening operations in Japanese, Korean, and Okinawan waters. She returned to San Diego on 25 June 1954, and for more than a year, she operated out of San Diego along the coast of southern California.

George sailed on her next WestPac cruise on 4 October 1955. She operated out of Guam for more than 2 months, and conducted surveillances of the Carolines, Marianas, Bonin, and Volcano Islands before reaching Yokosuka, Japan,in January 1956. She participated in convoy, anti-submarine warfare, and gunnery exercises until 10 March when she sailed for the West Coast, arriving at San Diego on 31 March. Subsequently, she resumed operations out of San Diego, highlighted by an October 1956 cruise to British Columbia. On 3 January 1957, she again sailed to join the 7th Fleet, the force for peace in the Far East. After steaming to New Zealand and Japan, she served as station ship at Hong Kong; participated in SEATO maneuvers off the Philippines; and operated out of Guam on island surveillance patrols in the Marianas. Departing Guam on 10 June, she returned to San Diego on 7 July. In September 1957, George was assigned to duty as a reserve training ship out of San Francisco. She decommissioned at San Francisco on 8 October 1958, and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Stockton, California.

George received two battle stars for World War II service.

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

• navsource.org: USS George
• http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/g4/george.htm