USS Mervine ( DD - 489 ) USS " Mervine " ( DD - 489 / DMS - 31 ) , a " Gleaves " - class destroyer , was the 2nd ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral William Mervine , who served during the War of 1812 , the Mexican - American War and the American Civil War . The " Mervine " was laid down 3 November 1941 by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Kearny , New Jersey ; launched on 3 May 1942 , sponsored by Miss Mildred Mervine great - granddaughter of the admiral and commissioned on 17 June 1942 , with Lieutenant Commander S . D . Willingham in command . History . Following a Cuban shakedown cruise , " Mervine " reported for duty with the Gulf Sea Frontier at New Orleans , 30 August 1942 . Assigned to escort work , she accompanied merchantmen as they plied the Gulf and West Indian shipping lanes , which during the preceding months had gained the dubious distinction of suffering the heaviest losses to U - boat activity in the eastern Atlantic . In October " Mervine " left the gulf and steamed to Norfolk where she Joined Task Force 34 ( TF 34 ) and sailed east . Toward midnight on 7 November she arrived off Safi , Morocco , and took up her station for Operation TORCH the invasion of North Africa . During the landings on the 8th , she acted as control vessel and provided fire support for the assault forces on Red Beach , north of Safi . She remained on patrol in the area for the next five days and then returned to New York . There she resumed escort assignments and for the next seven months guarded coastal and transatlantic convoys . On 8 June 1943 " Mervine " departed with TF 65 for North Africa . Arriving at Mers - el - Kebir on the 22nd , she joined TF 85 and on 5 July departed for Sicily and Operation HUSKY . From the 10th through the 13th , she cruised off Scoglitti and along the coast of the Camerina Plain , providing fire support for the 7th Army ' s assault troops . She then returned to escort work in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean . Pacific Theater . In the spring of 1945 , as Allied Forces in the Pacific pushed closer to the Japanese home islands and their need for minesweepers increased — doubly so with the disastrous toll among that type ship in the Ryukyus — " Mervine " was designated for conversion . On 23 May she entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she became a destroyer minesweeper . Reclassified as DMS - 31 on 30 May 1945 , she departed for Norfolk on 15 July , and continued on to the Pacific . En route at the time of the Japanese surrender she arrived at Buckner Bay , Okinawa , on 28 September . In October , she swept mines off the China coast near Kokuzan . Shifting to Japanese waters the following month , she operated first off Kyūshū and then off Honshū . Post war . " Mervine " reported to San Francisco on 31 March 1946 for two years of west coast operations before returning to the Far East . On 25 March 1948 she arrived at Yokosuka and continued on to Tsingtao , China , where she carried out escort , rescue , and training assignments until 5 October when she departed for the United States . Arriving at her homeport San Diego , in November , she soon departed again for training and availability at Pearl Harbor . On 15 February 1949 she returned to southern California for the last time . On 27 May she decommissioned and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego . Redesignated DD - 489 again on 15 July 1955 , she remained at San Diego until the end of the decade and then was transferred first to the Columbia River Reserve Group and finally to Bremerton . Struck on 31 July 1968 from the Navy list , she was sold for scrap in 1969 . Awards . " Mervine " received three battle star s for her World War II service .