USS George ( DE - 697 ) USS " George " ( DE - 697 ) was a . She was the second ship of the United States Navy named after Seaman Second Class Eugene F . George ( 1925 – 1942 ) , who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism on at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal . " George " was laid down on 22 May 1943 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company , Bay City , Michigan . The ship was launched on 14 August 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . Harlow F . George , the mother of Seaman George ; and commissioned at New Orleans , Louisiana , on 20 November 1943 , with Lieutenant Commander J . B . Page in command . World War II . After shakedown off Bermuda , " George " sailed from Boston , Massachusetts on 11 January 1944 to escort a merchantman from Norfolk , Virginia to Nouméa , New Caledonia , where she arrived on 19 February . Until the spring of 1944 , " George " escorted transports to the Admiralties , the New Hebrides , and the Solomons during consolidation operations in the Solomons . On 16 May , she sailed from Florida Island , in the Solomons , in a hunter - killer group with and on what was to become one of the most successful anti - submarine actions in the Pacific war . During this patrol from 19 to 31 May , the three - ship team sank six Japanese submarine s ( , , , , , and ) in waters north of the Bismarck Archipelago . " George " arrived at Manus Island on 4 June after this feat , and during the next three months , she conducted anti - submarine patrols and escorted merchantmen to the New Hebrides , the Solomons , and the Marshall Islands . After serving briefly as station - ship at Funafuti , Ellice Islands , she steamed to Australia , arriving at Sydney on 12 October . After returning to Purvis Bay , Florida Island , on 28 October , " George " resumed anti - submarine patrols and escorted convoys to New Guinea , Manus , Guam , and Saipan . During the liberation of the Philippines , she escorted convoys out of Ulithi , and in February 1945 , she escorted ships from Guam to Iwo Jima during the invasion and occupation of that embattled island . In addition , she served as air - sea rescue station , and on 18 April 1945 , she rescued three survivors from a B - 29 forced to ditch off Iwo Jima . During the summer of 1945 , she made two escort voyages to Okinawa , one each from Ulithi and Guam ; and , after the Japanese surrender , she delivered surrender terms on 12 September to the Japanese garrison stationed on Truk , Carolines . She departed Guam on 18 September , and sailed for the United States , where she arrived at San Pedro , California , on 5 October . 1946 – 1958 . Between 10 March 1946 and 9 April 1947 , " George " deployed with the United States Seventh Fleet in the $ 3 . She operated along the Japanese coast and steamed to Tsingtao and Shanghai , China , where she supported American and Chinese Nationalist troops during occupation operations against the Communists in North China . From 1947 to 1951 , she served with Escort Division 31 , attached to the Fleet Sonar School at Pearl Harbor . " George " moved to San Diego with the Fleet Sonar School in 1951 , and served there until undergoing overhaul at Pearl Harbor in the spring of 1953 . Following return to San Diego in September 1953 , she sailed for Sasebo , Japan , on 10 November , and conducted hunter - killer and screening operations in Japanese , Korean , and Okinawan waters . She returned to San Diego on 25 June 1954 , and for more than a year , she operated out of San Diego along the coast of southern California . " George " sailed on her next WestPac cruise on 4 October 1955 . She operated out of Guam for more than two months , and conducted surveillances of the Carolines , Marianas , Bonin , and Volcano Islands before reaching Yokosuka , Japan , in January 1956 . She participated in convoy , anti - submarine warfare , and gunnery exercises until 10 March when she sailed for the West Coast , arriving at San Diego on 31 March . Subsequently , she resumed operations out of San Diego , highlighted by an October 1956 cruise to British Columbia . On 3 January 1957 , she again sailed to join the Seventh Fleet . After steaming to New Zealand and Japan , she served as station ship at Hong Kong ; participated in Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation maneuvers off the Philippines ; and operated from Guam on island surveillance patrols in the Marianas . Departing Guam on 10 June , she returned to San Diego on 7 July . In September 1957 , " George " was assigned to duty as a reserve training ship operating from San Francisco . She decommissioned at San Francisco on 8 October 1958 , and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Stockton , California . " George " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1969 , and sold for scrapping on 12 October 1970 . Awards . " George " received two battle star s for World War II service .