USS Ellis ( DD - 154 ) USS " Ellis " ( DD – 154 ) was a " Wickes " class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II . She was reclassified AG - 115 on 30 June 1945 . She was the second ship named for Chief Yeoman George Henry Ellis . " Ellis " was launched 30 November 1918 by William Cramp & Sons , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; sponsored by Mrs . E . T . Stotesbury ; and commissioned 7 June 1919 , Lieutenant Commander T . E . Van Metre in command . Service history . " Ellis " s first cruise , between 16 June 1919 and 15 August , was to the Black Sea , carrying United States Food Administration officials for famine relief work , and British and American military officers between Constantinople , Turkey ; Varna , Bulgaria ; and Batum , Georgia . She returned to a year of exercises on the east coast and in the Caribbean . From 29 September 1920 to 16 March 1921 she was in reserve at Charleston . She sailed north to fire test torpedoes off Newport , lay again at Charleston from October 1921 through February 1922 . On 27 February she entered Philadelphia Navy Yard , where she was out of commission from 17 June 1922 to 1 May 1930 . " Ellis " served with the Scouting Fleet along the east coast , off Panama and Cuba , and from March 1932 through October in exercises between San Diego and San Francisco . She was in rotating reserve at Norfolk and Boston in 1932 and 1933 . In April 1933 , she searched for , and found wreckage off the New Jersey coast . Based on New York through the summer of 1933 , she escorted the Presidential yacht along the New England coast to Campobello , Nova Scotia , where on 1 July she embarked President Franklin D . Roosevelt and his party , transferring them to . She escorted " Indianapolis " to Annapolis , where the President again visited " Ellis " on 4 July . She also trained members of the Naval Reserve before departing New York 8 September for Key West . The next year , " Ellis " cruised to Cuba , again escorted the President , this time in a private yacht , and on 24 October 1934 passed through the Panama Canal to be based on San Diego . Training operations took her to Alaska and Hawaii during the next year and a half , and on 7 June 1936 she returned to Miami for east coast reserve training duty until decommissioned at Philadelphia 16 December 1936 . World War II . " Ellis " was recommissioned 16 October 1939 , and from her bases at Charleston and Norfolk , patrolled the east coast concentrating on antisubmarine warfare . Between 22 June and 21 July 1941 , she sailed from Newport to escort transports carrying the first Marines to the occupation of Iceland , and a month later sailed to base at NS Argentia , Newfoundland for escort duty to Iceland and to midocean rendezvous . Returning at intervals to Boston for replenishment and repairs , she served thus until March 1942 , when her operations were extended to the Virgin Islands . She escorted coastal convoys , on 15 July 1942 attacking a submarine off Cape Hatteras . From October 1942 , she also guarded convoy routes between Trinidad and Brazil , and in March 1943 was assigned to transatlantic convoys . On 12 October 1942 , " Ellis " picked up the only German survivor of , " Matrosengefreiter " Franz Machen who had been floating on a raft for ten days , and held him in captivity . Between 20 March 1943 and 25 June , " Ellis " escorted two top priority tanker convoys with Aruba oil for North Africa , then troop transports to Derry . From August to November , she twice guarded escort carriers ferrying Army planes to Ireland and North Africa . " Ellis " escorted to the Azores in January 1944 , and while on patrol there rescued two downed British pilots . Returning to North African convoy duty , " Ellis " made two voyages from the east coast to Casablanca , Algiers , and Bizerte between February and June . On 11 May , off Bizerte , she was attacked by four bombers , three of which she had a hand in splashing , and drove the fourth away . The remainder of the war , " Ellis " guarded carriers training pilots , experimented with torpedo aircraft , twice made escort voyages to Recife , Brazil . She was decommissioned at Norfolk 31 October 1945 and sold 20 June 1947 . Awards . " Ellis " received one battle star for World War II service .