page_title: USS Zellars
section_title: Iranian service
hierarchical_section_title: USS Zellars / Iranian service
caption_attribution_description: The Iranian destroyer Babr (D-61) underway on 1 November 1977. The ship was the former U.S. Navy Allen N. Sumner-class destroyer USS Zellars (DD-777) and was photographed from the aircraft carrier USS Midway (CV-41).
context_page_description: USS Zellars, an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, was named for Lt. Thomas Edward Zellars, a sailor who served on the battleship USS Mississippi. On 12 June 1924, Thomas Zellars and 47 other crew members died in a firing accident. However, before they were killed, Zellars apparently opened a flood valve that extinguished the fire, preventing further damage to the ship and likely saving the lives of his shipmates. The destroyer that was named for him was laid down on 24 December 1943 at Seattle, Washington, by the Todd-Pacific Shipyards, Inc.; launched on 19 July 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Thomas M. Zellars; and commissioned on 25 October 1944, Commander Blinn Van Mater in command. Zellars was eventually transferred to the Iranian Navy and renamed Babr. The current status of the ship is unknown.
context_section_description: The warship returned to Newport on 10 October and, one month later, moved to New York where she became a Naval Reserve training ship. That duty constituted her mission for the remaining 16 months of her active career. Zellars was decommissioned on 19 March 1971, and her name was struck from the Navy List. Set aside for sale to the Iranian government, she was moved to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where she underwent extensive modification over the next 20 months. Renamed Babr (Tiger) (DDG-7), she was commissioned in the Imperial Iranian Navy on 12 October 1973 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. As of 1998, she remained active with the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, though non-operational since 1994 and awaiting scrapping.
caption: Babr in the late 1970s.
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