USS Quick ( DD - 490 ) USS " Quick " ( DD - 490 / DMS - 32 ) , a " Gleaves " - class destroyer , was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Sergeant Major John H . Quick ( 1870 – 1922 ) , who received the Medal of Honor “ for gallantry in action ” at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , 14 June 1898 , during the Spanish - American War . " Quick " was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co . , Kearny , New Jersey on 3 November 1941 . It was completed and launched on 3 May 1942 ; sponsored by Mrs . William T . Roy , niece of Sergeant Major Quick . She was commissioned on 3 July 1942 , with Lieutenant Commander R . B . Nickerson in command . Service history . Following her initial shakedown off the coast of New England and the Maritime Provinces , " Quick " departed New York , 6 September 1942 , for the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico . Assigned to escort work , she accompanied United States Army transports and merchantmen as they plied the Gulf and West Indian shipping lanes — lanes which in preceding months had suffered the greatest losses to U - boat activities in the eastern Atlantic Ocean . In October , " Quick " left the Gulf and steamed to Norfolk , Virginia where she joined Task Force 34 ( TF 34 ) on 23 October and steamed east . Just before midnight on 7 November , she arrived off the coast of Safi , Morocco , and took up station in the transport area for the Southern Attack Group of Operation TORCH the invasion of North Africa . During the landings the following day , she provided gunfire support , then resumed anti - aircraft and anti - submarine duties . On 14 November , she shifted to Casablanca and two days later assisted in sinking . On the 17th , she got underway for the United States and at the end of the month anchored in New York harbor . She resumed escort work and for the next six months guarded coastal and trans - Atlantic convoys . On 8 June 1943 , " Quick " departed the east coast with TF 65 , bound for North Africa . Arriving at Mers - el - Kebir on the 22 June , she joined TF 85 and on 5 July sailed for Sicily and Operation HUSKY . From the 10th - 13th , she cruised off Seoglitti and along the Camerina plain , providing fire support for the U . S . 7th Army ' s assault troops . She then returned to escort work in the North Atlantic until May 1944 , and on Mediterranean runs until the end of the war in Europe . The war in the Pacific Ocean raged on , however , and , as Allied forces pushed closer to the Japanese home islands , their need for minesweepers increased , doubly so with the toll among that type in the Ryukyus . " Quick " , no longer needed for escort work in the Atlantic , was designated to help fill the need , and on 13 June 1945 , she entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard where she became a destroyer - minesweeper . Emerging from conversion on 2 August as DMS - 32 ( effective 23 June 1945 ) , she sailed for the west coast , arriving at San Diego after the cessation of Pacific hostilities . Toward the end of September , she sailed for Pearl Harbor , thence to Eniwetok for abbreviated operations after which she returned to Hawaii . On 2 December 1946 , she headed west again , arriving at Sasebo on the 16th for a nine - month tour during which she operated off the China coast and off Okinawa in addition to working in Japan ese waters . Spending a little over a month on the west coast , she operated in the Marianas from December 1946 to February 1947 , then returned to Japanese waters . In April 1947 she resumed operations in the Trust Territories and in August returned to the west coast . The following spring she deployed to the Marshall Islands and Marianas for another three months , returning to San Diego on 4 June . Eight months later she was designated for inactivation and , on 1 March 1949 , she reported to Commander , Pacific Reserve Fleet , decommissioning 28 May 1949 . Reclassified DD - 490 on 15 July 1955 , " Quick " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 January 1972 and sold 27 August 1973 and broken up for scrap . Awards . " Quick " earned four battle star s during World War II .