USS Moore ( DE - 240 ) USS Moore ( DE - 240 ) was an Edsall - class destroyer escort built for the U . S . Navy during World War II . She served in the Atlantic Ocean the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys . She was named in honor of Fred Kenneth Moore who was awarded the Navy Cross for his brave actions when , at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 , " 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 . " Moore ( DE 240 ) " was laid down 20 July 1942 at the Brown Shipbuilding Co . , Houston , Texas ; launched 20 December 1942 ; sponsored by Mrs . Fred Moore , mother of " Seaman Fred K . Moore " ; and commissioned 1 July 1943 , Lt . Comdr . H . P . Michiels in command . World War II North Atlantic operations . Following shakedown off Bermuda , Moore steamed to Norfolk , Virginia , 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 twice . On 13 January 1944 , she relieved USS Decker ( DE - 47 ) for a month of operations off the New England coast under Com Fleet Air Wing , Quonset Point , Rhode Island . In March , she sailed to Casco Bay , Maine , 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 USS Tripoli ( CVE - 64 ) for antisubmarine patrol duty west of the Cape Verde 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 Bermuda to Argentia , Newfoundland , 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 USS Core ( CVE - 13 ) . For the remainder of the war in Europe she operated with Core , cruising along the east coast and in the western Atlantic from Cuba to Newfoundland . Reassigned to the Pacific Fleet . On 11 May 1945 , she put into Tompkinsville , shifting later to Brooklyn 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 7 , for which she served as flagship , 24 June . On 4 August she arrived at Pearl Harbor , 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 . There she reported to TF 94 for post war duty under Com Marianas area . Assigned to the Bonin Volcano area she anchored off western Iwo Jima , 3 September , and a few days later commenced air sea rescue operations with Fleet Air Wing 18 . Post - War 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 . Berthed originally at Green Cove Springs , Florida , she was later transferred to the Norfolk Reserve Group . She was struck from the Navy list on 1 August 1973 and sunk as a target off Virginia , 13 June 1975 .