USS Keith ( DE - 241 ) USS " Keith " ( DE - 241 ) was an of the United States Navy named in honor of Ellis Judson Keith , Jr . , who was killed in action on 11 June 1942 , Seaman Keith was posthumously awarded the Air Medal . " Keith " was originally laid down as " Scott " but renamed " Keith " on 8 December 1942 , and was launched 21 December 1942 by the Brown Shipbuilding Company in Houston , Texas . " Keith " was sponsored by Mrs . Ellis J . Keith , Sr . , the mother of Seaman Keith ; and commissioned 19 July 1943 at Houston , Texas , with Lieutenant D . Cochran in command . After shakedown and training exercises out of Bermuda , " Keith " sailed from Norfolk , Virginia 14 September 1943 on the first of three voyages escorting convoys from East Coast ports to Gibraltar . After returning from convoy escort duty 22 February 1944 , " Keith " underwent extensive refresher training and participated in antisubmarine warfare exercises before sailing on 15 March as part of escort carrier ' s newly formed hunter - killer group . With this group she patrolled the Atlantic Ocean from Brazil to Newfoundland in search of enemy submarine s . In July , she joined a similar group operating with escort carrier . On 30 August , " Core " ’ s hunter - killer group contacted an enemy submarine . " Keith " , assisting in the search , made two hedgehog attacks with inconclusive results . " Keith " continued to operate with the hunter - killer group patrolling the waters of the Atlantic , escorting convoys from " mid - ocean point " to ports in Brazil , Bermuda , Newfoundland , Cuba , and the United States . On 23 April 1945 , the hunter - killer group , operating as a combined force against a large wolfpack of U - boat s , spotted a partially submerged submarine but could not locate it after it dived . While searching the next day , , a destroyer escort in company , was torpedoed and sunk . " Keith " and a task group ships headed to the position where the " Frederick C . Davis " had gone down and launched a depth charge attack that lasted some 12 hours before U - 546 was forced to surface . The destroyer escorts opened fire on the submarine ; and " Keith " made two direct hits before the U - boat sank . After the engagement , " Keith " rescued four survivors from the submarine . In mid - July , " Keith " departed Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , for duty in the Pacific Ocean . " Keith " found herself in Pearl Harbor at the end of hostilities with the Japanese and got underway for Saipan to perform escort duty and mop - up operations . Shortly after arriving , 31 August , she was assigned an air - sea rescue station between Iwo Jima and Japan . At the end of the year " Keith " sailed for China , arriving Shanghai on the last day of December . She remained there patrolling and escorting vessels until sailing for the United States on 10 April 1946 via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal arriving at Charleston , South Carolina on 15 May 1946 . " Keith " was towed to Green Cove Springs , Florida , where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 20 September 1946 . By the late 1960s she was still in reserve and berthed at Orange , Texas being stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1972 and sold for scrap on 1 December 1973 . " Keith " received one battle star for World War II service .