USS O'Hare

USS O’HARE (DD-889), named for Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare USN (1914-1944), awarded the Medal of Honor while serving as section leader and pilot of Fighting Squadron Three on 20 February 1942, the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and Gold Star in lieu of a second Distinguished Flying Cross in subsequent air actions, reported missing when his plane was lost during enemy action in the vicinity of Tarawa Atoll and declared dead on 27 November 1944, was a Gearing class destroyer laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange in Texas on 27 January 1945, launched on 22 June 1945 by Mrs. Selma O’Hare, the mother of Lieutenant Commander O’Hare and commissioned on 29 November 1945. O’Hare served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the conflict in Vietnam. USS O’Hare was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1973, transferred to Spain and renamed Mendez Nunez.