USS Griswold ( DE - 7 ) USS " Griswold " ( DE - 7 ) was an " Evarts " - class short - hull destroyer escort in the service of the United States Navy , the second ship named for Ensign Don T . Griswold , who perished during the battle of Midway 1942 . " Griswold " ( DE - 7 ) was launched 9 January 1943 by Boston Naval Shipyard , Charlestown , Massachusetts ; sponsored by Mrs . Don T . Griswold , mother of Ensign Griswold . She was commissioned 28 April 1943 , Lieutenant Commander Charles M . Lyons in command . Service history . After shakedown in Bermuda , " Griswold " headed for the Pacific , reaching Bora Bora , Society Islands , via Norfolk , Virginia and the Panama Canal 23 July 1943 . Immediately pressed into service , she escorted convoys through the South Pacific , until April 1944 . On 12 September , she conducted a 4 - hour attack on a Japan ese submarine off Guadalcanal , and although debris and an oil slick rose to the surface , she was not credited with a kill . Undaunted , " Griswold " struck again 3 months later and this time recorded a kill . At 2200 on the night of 23 December , patrolling off Lunga Point , Guadalcanal , she was dispatched to investigate a periscope sighting . Alert sonar operators picked up the contact immediately , and held it for the next 5 hours , as the determined ship conducted attack after attack on the elusive Japanese raider . Oil slicks and air bubbles after the sixth and seventh attacks told " Griswold " that her quarry was hit . This was confirmed shortly before 0300 on 24 December , when a periscope poked up out of the water . " Griswold " charged in for her eighth attack , laying a lethal pattern of twelve depth charges . A heavy oil slick dotted with debris rose to the surface , and the tenacious ship and crew were credited with sinking . After overhaul at Mare Island , the escort ship returned to the Pacific theatre on 3 June 1944 to escort convoys and participate in training exercises out of Pearl Harbor well into 1945 . From 12 March - 6 May 1945 , she remained on station at Eniwetok as flagship for Commander Task Group 96 . 3 , under Commander T . F . Fowler . The long Pacific campaign was moving into its final phase that spring as American forces invaded Okinawa , a short step from the Japanese home islands ; and " Griswold " soon moved up to the front . Reaching Okinawa on 27 May , " Griswold " immediately took up station on the ASW screen , and was shortly rewarded with two " kamikaze " kills , 31 May and 5 June . The second of those would - be " kamikazes " dived on " Griswold " , but she evaded it and the marauder exploded into the ocean so close that fragments of the Japanese plane showered over her . On 29 June , " Griswold " departed Okinawa , escorting a convoy to Leyte Gulf , Philippines , and continuing on to Ulithi for screening work . At war ' s end , she sailed triumphantly into Japanesee waters , anchoring in Tokyo Bay on 10 September . Embarking passengers for stateside , " Griswold " cleared Tokyo 6 days later and arrived San Pedro , California on 8 October via Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor . She decommissioned there on 19 November 1945 , and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 5 December . The hulk was sold to Dulien Steel Products , Seattle , Wash . , for scrapping on 27 November 1946 .