USS O ' Hare ( DD - 889 ) USS " O ' Hare " ( DD / DDR - 889 ) was a of the United States Navy , named for Lieutenant Commander Edward " Butch " O ' Hare , Medal of Honor recipient , who was shot down at Tarawa on 27 November 1943 . " O ' Hare " was laid down at the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange , Texas on 27 January 1945 ; launched on 22 June 1945 , sponsored by Mrs . Selma O ' Hare , the mother of Lieutenant Commander O ' Hare , and commissioned on 29 November 1945 . Service history . 1946 – 1963 . In February 1946 , following shakedown , " O ' Hare " became an active unit of the Navy . After spending 1946 in operations ranging from New Brunswick down to the Florida Keys , she embarked her first group of midshipmen for a cruise to Latin America during the summer of 1947 . Departing Norfolk , Virginia , early in May 1948 she sailed to the Mediterranean temporarily serving under the United Nations ' flag as an evacuation ship off Haifa , Israel , from 24 June through July , during the 1948 Arab - Israeli War . Several goodwill visits took place before departure for home in September at the conclusion of this first deployment with the Sixth Fleet . Eight additional such tours of duty , prior to the end of 1962 , permitted ship ' s company to gain a great deal of familiarity with the area . Midshipman cruises and NATO maneuvers added new vistas and dimensions to her training exercises as did several rescue operations . Twice in 1952 this destroyer received commendations for her efforts after ships had collided at sea , while in 1957 and again in 1961 aviators from the carriers and respectively were plucked from the sea . Meanwhile , to update and increase her value to the Navy , " O ' Hare " was converted during 1953 to a radar picket ship ( DDR - 889 ) and in 1958 received installation of the electronic data system . The next major modification , in 1963 , a FRAM Mk I overhaul , restored her original designation . 1963 – 1973 . The increasing tempo and scope of the Vietnam War brought DD - 889 an assignment to WestPac duty . Steaming from Norfolk , on 1 June 1966 , she assumed station as a gun support ship along the coast of Vietnam on 15 July , firing missions in all four Corps areas in the South . " O ' Hare " served as plane guard for aircraft carriers on " Yankee Station " in the Gulf of Tonkin , participated in " Sea Dragon " operations , patrolled on search and rescue duties off North Vietnam . " O ' Hare " returned home on 17 December via the Suez Canal , completing a circumnavigation of the world . In March 1968 , along with the USS Charles Ware ( DD865 ) from Mayport , O ' Hare deployed to the Indian Ocean via Africa and made 17 port calls in the Middle East . In January 1969 with Destroyer Squadron 32 ( DesRon 32 ) she again deployed to the Mediterranean . " O ' Hare " deployed to Vietnam on 1 December 1972 , remaining on gunfire support duty there until the cease fire of March 1973 . She then became the last U . S . Navy ship based on the United States East Coast to circumnavigate the world after a Vietnam deployment during her return to the United States . She became a " blue - nosed " ship during the voyage when she crossed the Arctic Circle on 17 September 1972 , and passed through the Panama Canal on 6 December 1972 . " O ' Hare " was decommissioned on 31 October 1973 , and transferred on loan to the Spanish Navy . The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1975 . SPS " Méndez Núñez " ( D63 ) . " O ' Hare " was sold outright to Spain on 17 May 1978 . In the Spanish Navy , she served as , in honor of Vice Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez ( 1824 – 1869 ) , and was the 3rd ship in Spanish navy with this name . " Méndez Núñez " was stricken and scrapped in 1992 .