USS Moore (DE-240) was an

Edsall-class The ''Edsall''-class destroyer escorts were destroyer escorts built primarily for ocean antisubmarine escort service during World War II. The lead ship, , was commissioned on 10 April 1943 at Orange, Texas. The class was also known as the FMR t ...

destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She served in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and provided destroyer escort protection against

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.

Namesake

Fred Kenneth Moore was born on 17 December 1921 at Campbell, Texas. He attended Lone Oak High School in Lone Oak, Texas. He enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

on 31 July 1940. He was serving on the at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

on 7 December 1941 when the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

took place. Seaman Moore remained at his station on antiaircraft gun No. 1 in spite of orders to take cover when the Japanese strafing became severe. With two other members of the gun crew, he assisted in keeping the gun in operation until he was killed by an explosion. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

Construction and commissioning

''Moore'' (DE 240) was laid down 20 July 1942 at the

Brown Shipbuilding The Brown Shipbuilding Company was founded in Houston, Texas, in 1942 as a subsidiary of Brown and Root (now KBR) by brothers Herman and George R. Brown to build ships for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Brown Shipbuilding Company ranked 68th ...

Co.,

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas; launched 20 December 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Fred Moore, mother of Seaman Fred K. Moore; and commissioned 1 July 1943.

World War II North Atlantic operations

Following shakedown off

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

, Moore steamed to

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

, where she reported for duty with task force TF 63, then escorted merchant convoys, beginning 10 September 1943. Before the end of the year she had transited the Atlantic to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

twice. On 13 January 1944, she relieved for a month of operations off the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

coast under Com Fleet Air Wing,

Quonset Point, Rhode Island Quonset Point (), also known simply as Quonset, is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Its name is widely known from the Quonset hut, which was first manufactured there. ''Quonset'' is an Algonq ...

. In March, she sailed to

Casco Bay Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland sits along its south ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, for abbreviated training exercises and then headed south to Norfolk where she joined task group TG 24.14 and sailed, on the 15th, in the screen of for antisubmarine patrol duty west of the

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

Islands. A unit of the U.S. 4th Fleet for under 2 months, she returned to Norfolk, 27 April, and, in May, continued her patrols with Tripoli in the North Atlantic, from

Argentia, Newfoundland Argentia ( ) is a Canadian commercial seaport and industrial park located in the Town of Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated on the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula and defined by a triangular shaped headland which re ...

, in TG 22.4. Detached for the month of July, she conducted coastal operations and escort work, and completed one escort run to Bermuda before resuming operations with TG 22.4, assigned this time to . For the remainder of the war in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

she operated with Core, cruising along the east coast and in the western Atlantic from

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

Reassigned to the Pacific Fleet

On 11 May 1945, she put into

Tompkinsville Tompkinsville may refer to: *Tompkinsville, Kentucky * Tompkinsville, Maryland *Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York ** Tompkinsville (Staten Island Railway station) The Tompkinsville station is a Staten Island Railway station in the neighborh ...

, shifting later to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and then to Boston, Massachusetts, for overhaul preparatory to her reassignment to the Pacific Fleet. She got underway for the Pacific, with others of her division,

CortDiv The structure of the United States Navy consists of four main bodies: the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the operating forces (described below), and the Shore Establishment. Office of the Chief of ...

7, for which she served as

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

, 24 June. On 4 August she arrived at

, where, 10 days later, she received word of the Japanese agreement to Allied surrender terms. On the 20th, she resumed her westward voyage and arrived, on the 29th, at

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

. There she reported to TF 94 for post war duty under Com

Marianas The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

area. Assigned to the Bonin Volcano area she anchored off western

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

, 3 September, and a few days later commenced air sea rescue operations with Fleet Air Wing 18.

Postwar decommissioning

''Moore'' returned to the United States in late 1946 with orders to report to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet for inactivation. That work, begun in January 1947, was completed 30 June, when ''Moore'' decommissioned and joined the

16th Fleet The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and s ...

. Berthed originally at Green Cove Springs, Florida, she was later transferred to the Norfolk Reserve Group. She was struck from the

Navy list A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval author ...

on 1 August 1973 and sunk as a target off

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, 13 June 1975.

References

External links

NavSource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive - USS Moore (DE-240)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore (DE-240) Edsall-class destroyer escorts Ships built in Houston 1942 ships World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States Shipwrecks of the Virginia coast Ships sunk as targets Maritime incidents in 1975