USS Gunason ( DE - 795 ) USS Gunason ( DE - 795 ) a " Buckley " - class destroyer escort of the United States Navy , was named in honor of Lieutenant Robert W . Gunason who was killed in action while serving on the USS " Astoria " , during the Battle of Savo Island . Gunason was launched 16 October 1943 by the Consolidated Steel Corp . , Orange , Tex . ; sponsored by Mrs . Mabel Meneley , the namesake ' s mother ; and commissioned 1 February 1944 , Comdr . H . G White , USNR , commanding . History . After shakedown , Gunason sailed from Boston 6 April 1944 for the Caribbean , reaching Trinidad 4 days later , and began inter - island escort duties . Until June she made frequent escort voyages between Trinidad and Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , delivering her convoys safely . Departing Trinidad 2 June , she rendezvoused at Barbados with a merchantman carrying one of the first loads of Barbadians to the United States to relieve the wartime farm labor shortage , and escorted the ship safely to Miami . Subsequently , following repairs at Boston , Gunason reached Casco Bay , Maine , 25 June and joined sister destroyer escorts bound for Hampton Roads , where all arrived 2 July to form Task Force 61 . Gunason served with this task force until early 1945 , making three transatlantic escort voyages out of Hampton Roads to Bizerte , Plymouth , and Oran respectively from 4 July 1944 to 8 January 1945 . Highlights of this exacting duty included she herding a stricken slow tow convoy which had been attacked by U boats . Gunason spent Christmas and New Year ' s standing by this convoy as it steamed into winter seas at 4 knots . Gunason was soon to change her theater of operations . She sailed from Boston 27 January 1945 via the Panama Canal for the South Pacific , arriving Manus 4 March . A round trip escort voyage thence to Leyte in March set the pattern she was to follow for the next 3 months — escorting convoys entering and departing Philippine waters — supporting America ' s last giant thrusts in the Pacific . In June , Gunason escorted troopships from Hollandia to Manila and after touching Ulithi put in at Manila again early in July . The ship departed Subic Bay 26 July in company with three destroyer escorts and a flotilla of landing craft bound for Okinawa , arriving 9 days later . A pre - dawn air attack 5 August sent all ships off Hagushi Beach to General Quarters , but Gunason and her charges escaped damage . She returned to Leyte 8 August and , following an escort voyage thence to Ulithi and return , got underway 30 August with one of the first Leyte - Tokyo convoys , a flotilla of LCI ' s that entered Tokyo Bay 7 September . Gunason sailed the next day for Manila , arriving 17 September , and remained in the Philippines until November . Duties included a trip to Batan Island with a War Crimes Investigating Detail in which facts , later brought forth in the Yamashita War Crimes Trial , were gleaned . A search mission for a downed plane and a training exercise with submarines in Subic Bay occupied Gunason until 26 November when she stood out of Subic Bay for the United States , arriving San Diego , Calif . , 17 December 1945 . She operated out of there until 10 February 1947 when she sailed for the Far East via Pearl Harbor and Guam . Gunason arrived Sasebo , Japan , 10 March . She sailed 3 days later for patrol off the eastern coast of Korea . Gunason remained in this service , with calls at Tsingtao and Yokosuka , until 10 September 1947 , when she departed for California . Arriving San Diego 19 September , Gunason conducted coastal operations until 12 December 1947 , when she entered Long Beach for inactivation . Gunason decommissioned 13 March 1948 and was placed in reserve at Mare Island . In 1969 she was berthed at Stockton , Calif . In 1973 she was sunk as a target . References .