USS Lovelace ( DE - 198 ) USS " Lovelace " ( DE - 198 ) was a in the United States Navy . She was named for naval aviator Donald Alexander Lovelace ( 1906 – 1942 ) . " Lovelace " was laid down on 22 May 1943 ; launched on 4 July 1943 by Norfolk Navy Yard , Portsmouth , Virginia ; sponsored by Mrs . Donald A . Lovelace , widow ; and commissioned on 7 November 1943 , with Lt . Comdr . R . D . de Kay , Jr . , in command . Service history . After shakedown , Lovelace departed Norfolk on 2 January 1944 never to return to the east coast of the United States . This flagship of Destroyer Escort Division 37 picked up convoys at Guantanamo , the Panama Canal Zone , and the Society Islands as she steamed across the southern Pacific to Noumea , New Caledonia , arriving on 8 February . Escort and screening duties in the Solomon Islands preceded her departure on 19 April for the New Guinea battle zone . Arriving off Hollandia ( now Jayapura , Indonesia ) without incident on 24 April , she screened the debarking of the second wave of relief troops . Later " Lovelace " interrupted her New Guinea coastal patrol and escort missions on 8 July to bombard beach targets at Toem and on 22 July entered a floating drydock at Milne Bay . A more important cessation from an almost continuous sailing schedule occurred a month later at New Caledonia , where new 20 mm guns were installed . " Lovelace " left the Melanesian groups on 15 October sailing northwest to the Kossol Straits , Palau Islands , and then westward to Leyte Gulf . She arrived on 25 October just as a major naval battle was beginning some sixty miles away . While protecting 7th Fleet replenishment units , she splashed her first enemy plane on 26 October . Six days later en route to Kossol Straits the screen was heavily attacked by suicide planes , but the convoy fought through . On 21 November " Lovelace " was credited with an assist in downing an enemy bomber attacking its Hollandia - bound convoy . After a period of refresher antisubmarine training off Sansapoor , New Guinea , the destroyer escort joined TF 78 en route to the Philippines . " Lovelace " continued to operate primarily as an intra - Philippine escort vessel from 8 January 1945 until mid - July . However , during this period her anti - aircraft capabilities were increased by the installation of air - search radar at Manus in the Admiralties . In July her zone of operations expanded to include Ulithi , and on 9 August , in the lull between air attacks , she first closed Okinawa . When she returned in September , it was the weather rather than the Japanese that posed the threat . Only slightly damaged herself on 19 September , she went to the assistance of the , an attack transport loaded with liberated U . S . war prisoners , after the ship had hit a drifting mine . After seeing the troopship safely back to Buckner Bay , " Lovelace " returned to the Philippines ; and on 1 October the ship departed Subic Bay for the United States in company with the ships of Escort Division 37 . Arriving in San Diego , California on 23 October , " Lovelace " reached the end of twenty - one active months of naval service . Decommissioned on 22 May 1946 , she was berthed at Bremerton , Washington , and struck on 1 July 1967 . " Lovelace " performed her last duty for the Navy by acting as a target for destruction on 25 April 1968 . Awards . Lovelace was awarded three battle stars for World War II service .