USS Gregory ( DD - 82 ) USS " Gregory " ( DD - 82 / APD - 3 ) was a " Wickes " - class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I and , as APD - 3 World War II . She was named for Admiral Francis Gregory USN ( 1780 – 1866 ) . " Gregory " was laid down by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company at Quincy , Massachusetts on 25 August 1917 , launched on 27 January 1918 by Mrs . George S . Trevor , great - granddaughter of Admiral Gregory , and commissioned on 1 June 1918 , Commander Arthur P . Fairfield in command . Service history . World War I . Joining a convoy at New York , " Gregory " sailed for Brest , France , 25 June 1918 . She spent the final summer of the war escorting convoys from the French port to various Allied ports in Britain and France . As the war neared its close , " Gregory " was assigned to the patrol squadron at Gibraltar 2 November 1918 . In addition to patrolling in the $ 3 and Mediterranean , " Gregory " carried passengers and supplies to the Adriatic and aided in the execution of the terms of the Austrian armistice . After six months of this duty , the flush - deck destroyer joined naval forces taking part in relief missions to the western Mediterranean 28 April 1919 . In company with , " Gregory " carried supplies and passengers to Smyrna , Constantinople , and Batum . She then sailed for Gibraltar with the American consul from Tiflis , Russia and some British army officers . She offloaded her passengers on the rocky fortress ; " Gregory " sailed for New York reaching the United States 13 June 1919 . After brief tours in reserve at Tompkinsville , New York , the Brooklyn Navy Yard , and the Philadelphia Navy Yard ; " Gregory " sailed to Charleston , South Carolina , 4 January 1921 . A year of local training operations out of the southern port ended 12 April 1922 , when " Gregory " entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard . She decommissioned 7 July 1922 and went into reserve . World War II . As war broke again over Europe , threatening to involve the United States , " Gregory " and three other four - stackers were taken out of mothballs for conversion to high - speed transports . The DDs were stripped of virtually all their armament to make room for boats , while other important modifications were made for troops and cargo . " Gregory " recommissioned 4 November 1940 as APD - 3 and joined , , and to form Transport Division 12 ( TransDiv 12 ) . None of these valiant ships were to live through the Pacific war , as all but " McKean " were lost during the Solomon Islands campaign . " Gregory " and her sister APDs trained along the East Coast for the following year perfecting landing techniques with various Marine divisions . On 27 January 1942 , with war already raging in the $ 3 , she departed Charleston for Pearl Harbor . Exercises in Hawaiian waters kept TransDiv 12 in the Pacific through the spring , after which they returned to San Diego for repairs . They sailed for the Pacific again 7 June , reaching Pearl Harbor a week later to train for the upcoming invasion of Guadalcanal , America ' s first offensive effort in the long Pacific campaign . Departing Nouméa 31 July 1942 , " Gregory " joined Task Force 62 ( TF 62 ) ( under Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher ) and steamed for Guadalcanal . After sending her Marines ashore in the first assault waves 7 August , " Gregory " and her sister APDs remained in the area performing a variety of tasks in one of history ' s most desperately fought over areas . The versatile ships patrolled the waters around the hotly contested islands , waters which were to gain notoriety as " Iron Bottom Sound " , and brought up ammunition & supplies from Espiritu Santo . On 4 September , " Gregory " and " Little " were returning to their anchorage at Tulagi after transferring a Marine Raider Battalion to Savo Island . The night was inky - black with a low haze obscuring all landmarks , and the ships decided to remain on patrol rather than risk threading their way through the dangerous channel . As they steamed between Guadalcanal and Savo Island at 10 kn ( 20 km / h ) , , , and entered the Slot undetected to deliver a " Tokyo Express " package of troops and supplies to Guadalcanal . After completing the delivery , the destroyers prepared to bombard Henderson Field at Lunga Point . At 0056 on the morning of 5 September , " Gregory " and " Little " saw flashes of gunfire which they assumed came from a Japanese submarine until radar showed four targets ; apparently a cruiser had joined the three destroyers . While the two outgunned but gallant ships were debating whether to close for action or depart quietly and undetected , the decision was taken out of their hands . A Navy pilot had also seen the gunfire and , assuming it came from a Japanese submarine , dropped a string of five flares almost on top of the two APDs . " Gregory " and " Little " , silhouetted against the blackness , were spotted immediately by the Japanese destroyers , who opened fire at 0100 . " Gregory " brought all her guns to bear but was desperately overmatched and less than 3 minutes after the fatal flares had been dropped was dead in the water and beginning to sink . Two boilers had burst and her decks were a mass of flames . Her skipper , Lieutenant Commander Harry F . Bauer , himself seriously wounded , gave the word to abandon ship , and " Gregory " s crew reluctantly took to the water . Bauer ordered two companions to aid another crewman yelling for help and was never seen again ; for his brave and gallant conduct , he posthumously received the Silver Star . The U . S . Navy subsequently named a ship , , in recognition of his gallant action . At 0123 , with all of " Gregory " s and most of " Little " s crew in the water , the Japanese ships began shelling again — aiming not at the crippled ships but at their helpless crews in the water . All but 11 of " Gregory " s crew survived , 6 of them swimming through the night all the way to Guadalcanal . " Gregory " sank stern first some 40 minutes after the firing had begun , and was followed 2 hours later by " Little " . Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz , in praising the courageous ships after their loss , wrote that " both of these small vessels fought as well as possible against the overwhelming odds . . . With little means , they performed duties vital to the success of the campaign . " " Gregory " s name was struck from the Navy List 2 October 1942 . Awards . " Gregory " received two battle star s for her World War II service .