USS Turner ( DD - 834 ) USS " Turner " ( DD / DDR - 834 ) was a of the United States Navy , the third Navy ship named for Captain Daniel Turner ( 1794 ? – 1850 ) . " Turner " was laid down on 13 November 1944 at Bath , Maine , by the Bath Iron Works Corp . ; launched on 8 April 1945 ; sponsored by Miss Louise Leahy , granddaughter of Fleet Admiral William D . Leahy ; and commissioned on 12 June 1945 at the Boston Navy Yard , Comdr . Ellis B . Rittenhouse in command . Service history . 1945 – 1948 . Immediately following her commissioning , " Turner " began undergoing conversion to destroyer picket ship at Boston , Mass . while her crew attended intensive specialized schools in preparation for picket duty . In mid - July , she arrived at Guantanamo Bay and , while she was undergoing shakedown in Cuban waters , Japan capitulated , ending World War II . Late in August , the ship returned to Boston for post - shakedown availability . In the second week of September , she resumed training exercises in the Caribbean and in Atlantic coastal waters . On 8 October , she departed Norfolk , Virginia and steamed — via Pensacola , Florida , the Panama Canal , and San Diego , California — to Hawaii , arriving at Pearl Harbor on 28 November . There , she prepared for duty in the Tokyo area and , on 10 December , departed the Hawaiian Islands and proceeded to Japan . She operated out of Japanese ports with Task Group 55 . 4 , Task Force 54 , and other elements of the 5th Fleet until 24 March 1946 when she departed Yokosuka and proceeded via Midway to Pearl Harbor . She remained at Oahu until 29 May when she got underway and proceeded to Roi Island . In June and July , she participated in " Operation Crossroads " — the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll — during which she was flagship of Destroyer Squadron 5 and supported air operations for Section Baker of the tests . She returned to Pearl Harbor on 30 July , got underway again on 7 August , and steamed into San Diego harbor on the 13th . The ship operated along the west coast until August 1947 , mainly participating in hunter - killer and fleet exercises . After loading ammunition at San Pedro , the destroyer , in company with Destroyer Division 132 , departed that port on 26 August 1947 ; steamed via the Hawaiian Islands and Japan ; and arrived at Tsingtao on 20 September . She visited various China coast ports before her return to San Diego on 5 May 1948 . For nearly a year , she operated out of California ports , conducting reserve training cruises and inter - type exercises . 1949 – 1958 . " Turner " was reclassified as a radar picket destroyer on 18 March 1949 . She departed San Diego on 4 April , steamed via the Panama Canal , and arrived at Newport , Rhode Island , on 21 April 1949 . There , she received additional electronic equipment enabling her to carry out her new duties . Throughout the 1950s , she conducted reserve training cruises , participated in fleet exercises , and frequently made 6th Fleet deployments . On her eighth Mediterranean cruise in 1958 , she acted as a picket ship for Task Force 61 during the Lebanon crisis . 1959 – 1969 . In 1959 , she shifted homeport to Mayport , Florida , and continued to pursue the same duties . At the New York Naval Shipyard in 1960 , she underwent a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization ( FRAM ) overhaul which improved her radar and sonar capabilities in anti - aircraft and anti - submarine warfare . In 1961 , the Charleston Naval Shipyard installed a new variable - depth sonar , adding to " Turner " s submarine detection equipment . Into the 1960s , she alternated frequent Mediterranean cruises with routine Atlantic training exercises , Atlantic picket duty , and special assignments . In 1960 , she joined Task Force 140 , the Project Mercury Recovery Force ; and , in 1964 , she added a Red Sea and Persian Gulf deployment to a Mediterranean voyage . In November and December of that year , she remained on station in the Caribbean in support of the Gemini II space shot . Armed conflict flared in the Caribbean in April 1965 ; and , from 8 through 25 May , " Turner " operated with Task Force 128 in support of the American presence in the Dominican Republic . She again provided assistance to the American space program in February 1966 when she patrolled an alternate recovery station — at a point midway between South America and Africa , not far from the equator — as a backup site for a Project Apollo test flight . While in the Caribbean on routine training in August 1967 , " Turner " conducted a search for a disabled motor boat which had been adrift in the Windward Passage with 11 passengers on board . After a four - hour hunt , she located and assisted the boat and its occupants . During her 14th Mediterranean deployment late in January 1968 , she directed the fruitless search for the missing Israeli submarine ; and , while operating with in the Mediterranean in October of that year , " Turner " rescued two survivors of a downed plane . Early in 1969 , she completed her 15th Mediterranean deployment and returned to the United States . In April , she arrived at Mayport and was decommissioned there on 26 September . Her name was struck from the Navy list that same day , and , on 13 October 1970 , she was sold to Southern Scrap Material , Ltd . , New Orleans , Louisiana , for scrapping .