John P. Gray (naval Officer)
USS ''John P. Gray'' (APD-74), ex-DE-673, was a United States Navy high-speed transport in commission from 1944 to 1946. Namesake John Porter Gray was born on 22 December 1914 in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 12 October 1939, was appointed Aviation Cadet in 1940 and underwent flight training, and was Commissioned officer, commissioned as an Ensign (rank), ensign. Gray then served at several naval air stations before reporting to Torpedo Squadron 2 in October 1940. He later transferred for temporary duty to Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) aboard the aircraft carrier and reached the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. As a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber pilot in VT-8, Gray took part in the pivotal Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942. Gray and the rest of the squadron attacked the Imperial Japanese Navy, Japanese aircraft carriers without Fighter aircraft, fighter cover and in the face of withering antiaircraft fire and he ...
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Destroyer Escort
Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by the British need in World War II for anti-submarine ships that could operate in open oceans at speeds of up to 20 knots. These "British Destroyer Escort"s were designed by the US for mass-production under Lend Lease as a less expensive alternative to fleet destroyers. The Royal Navy and Commonwealth forces identified such warships as frigates, and that classification was widely accepted when the United States redesignated destroyer escorts as frigates (FF) in 1975. From circa 1954 until 1975 new-build US Navy ships designated as destroyer escorts (DE) were called ocean escorts. Similar types of warships in other navies of the time included the 46 diesel-engined ''Kaibōkan'' of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 10 ''Kriegsmarine'' F-class escort ...
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