USS William R. Rush (DD/DDR-714) was a in the United States Navy. She was named for William R. Rush.
William R. Rush was laid down on 15 October 1944 at Newark, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company; launched on 8 July 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy Flagg Biddle, a cousin of Captain Rush; and commissioned on 21 September 1945. Completed too late to serve in World War II, she later saw action in during the Korean War. Transferred to the navy of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in 1978, she was finally decommissioned in 2000, then served as a museum ship until being broken up in 2016.
1946–1952
After fitting out at the New York Navy Yard and shakedown training out of Guantanamo Bay and Casco Bay, Maine, William R. Rush took part in 8th Fleet maneuvers off the eastern seaboard into May 1946. The destroyer then moved southward, to Pensacola, Florida, where she served as a plane guard for the aircraft carrier conducted flight training operations. Arriving back at Newport, Rhode Island, her home port, on 28 July, William R. Rush spent the rest of the year in local operations.
The destroyer departed Newport on 9 February 1948, bound for Europe and her first overseas deployment. She touched at ports of call in England, Ireland, Norway, France, Germany, Denmark, French Morocco, and Gibraltar before returning to Newport in June. For the next two years, William R. Rush operated off the eastern seaboard, exercising with submarines and escorting and plane-guarding for carriers.
In July 1949, William R. Rush sailed for Europe for an extended European and Mediterranean deployment that lasted into the following year. She touched at ports in France, Greece, Crete, Turkey, Gibraltar, England, Scotland, and Belgium, before she returned to Newport. Subsequently, overhauled for three months at Boston, Massachusetts the destroyer carried out refresher training in Guantanamo Bay from May into July 1950. Commencing in mid-July, William R. Rush conducted a training cruise that took the warship and her embarked midshipmen from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Guantanamo Bay.
Returning to Newport on 1 September 1950, William R. Rush visited NS Argentia and St. John's, Newfoundland, during October; spent much of the following month engaged in Operation "Convex I"—a convoy and striking force exercise; and underwent a period of upkeep back in her homeport, preparing for her next extended deployment.
On 3 January 1951, William R. Rush sailed for the Far East. Steaming via the Panama Canal, Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Sasebo, Japan, the destroyer subsequently joined Task Force (TF) 77 in Korean waters and conducted her first shore bombardment mission on 7 February, shelling North Korean rail lines along the coast. Bombardment and escort missions kept the ship continuously occupied until 13 June, when she began her voyage to the United States, steaming via the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Atlantic.
1952–1964
William R. Rush completed her circumnavigation of the globe when she returned to Newport on 8 August 1951. She spent the rest of 1951 on maneuvers and exercises from her home port before she entered the Boston Naval Shipyard at the end of the year for conversion to a radar picket ship. The ensuing refit—during which she was decommissioned on 21 December 1951—entailed replacing the ship's 40 mm Bofors batteries with rapid-fire 3 inch mounts; removing her torpedo tubes; and receiving improved electronic and radar equipment to enable the ship to perform her new picket role, itself an outgrowth of World War II experience with kamikazes in the Pacific. Reclassified to DDR-714 on 18 July 1952, William R. Rush was recommissioned on 3 September 1952.
Returning to Newport from her shakedown cruise as a DDR soon thereafter, William R. Rush underwent refresher training in Guantanamo Bay before she called at Mobile Bay, Alabama, for the 1953 Mardi Gras festivities.
William R. Rush conducted her second 6th Fleet deployment from April to October and then operated locally out of Newport. She performed varying duties into the summer of the following year, carrying out, in succession: antisubmarine warfare (ASW) exercises; plane-guard duties with carriers; and a tour as engineering school ship for the Atlantic Fleet Destroyer Force. She next embarked 66 NROTC midshipmen and sailed for the British Isles, touching at Irish and British ports before she returned to Guantanamo Bay for training. Disembarking the midshipmen at Norfolk on 3 September 1954, William R. Rush soon thereafter shifted to Boston, Massachusetts for a three-month overhaul.
Over the next decade, from 1954 to 1964, William R. Rush was deployed to the Mediterranean, for tours of duty with the 6th Fleet, on eight occasions, touching at ports that ranged from Gibraltar to Beirut, Lebanon, and including Pollença Bay and Palma, Mallorca; Naples and Livorno, Italy; Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece; Golfe Juan, France; Barcelona and Rota, Spain. During her service with the 6th Fleet, William R. Rush operated as plane guard and radar picket for fast carrier task forces and participated in NATO exercises. There were highlights of the cruises: in 1955, while at Golfe Juan, the destroyer hosted Mrs. James J. Cabot, the daughter of Capt. William R. Rush; and, in 1957, the ship cruised the Mediterranean with Naval Academy midshipmen embarked.
In between the Mediterranean deployments, William R. Rush operated from the Arctic Circle to the Caribbean, homeported first at Newport, from 1954 to 1958, and then from Mayport, Florida, from 1958 to 1964. She twice penetrated north of the Arctic Circle, in the autumn of 1957 and late in 1960, both times on NATO exercises.
There were highlights of the ship's closer-to-home deployments as well. In the summer of 1960, the ship embarked 35 Naval Academy midshipmen and took part in operations off the eastern seaboard with the Atlantic Fleet. She visited Quebec City, Canada; Hamilton, Bermuda; and Poughkeepsie, New York, during the cruise. That autumn, the ship served on "barrier patrol" when Cuban Premier Fidel Castro threatened the Caribbean nations of Nicaragua and Honduras. Two years later, in the fall of 1962, after American reconnaissance planes discovered the presence of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba, William R. Rush returned to the area and operated with TF 135 on the Cuban "quarantine" line from 20 October to 3 December. The ship was at sea continuously during that period, except for an availability alongside the destroyer tender from 12 to 17 November.
1964-1978
William R. Rush departed Mayport, Florida on 22 June 1964 and arrived at the New York Naval Shipyard on the 26th. Once at the shipyard, the ship commenced a 10-month Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul, at the completion of which she would resume her old classification, DD-714.
William R. Rush departed New York on 30 April 1965. Homeported back at Newport, the modernized destroyer soon commenced regular operations with the Fleet, following essentially the same sort of schedule that she had pursued since commissioning in 1945.
As a member of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 10, she operated off the eastern seaboard between Newport and Key West, Florida, assuming a new role as an antisubmarine warfare ship. Returning to Newport on 27 July 1965 from refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay and a week of providing services to the Fleet Sonar School at Key West, William R. Rush embarked 25 NROTC midshipmen for three weeks at sea with Royal Canadian Navy units on exercise "CANUS (Canadian and United States) SILEX 1-65."
The ship then went back to Newport for availability alongside Yosemite and then conducted two weeks of type training before moving south to Key West for a month of Sonar School services. A highlight of that deployment to Florida coastal waters came in September, when she rescued seven Cuban nationals who had originally been bound back to Cuba to bring out relatives. Their two boats had developed engine trouble and were in danger of capsizing in heavy seas.
William R. Rush returned to Newport shortly before Thanksgiving of 1965 and spent the remainder of the year in home waters before getting underway on 14 February 1966 for the Mediterranean. Highlighting the ship's 10th Mediterranean deployment were the usual good will stops at ports in Italy, Rhodes, Sicily, and Turkey; ASW exercises with American and Spanish Navy units, including Exercise "Spanex 1-66"; and 6th Fleet antiaircraft and ASW maneuvers. Relieved on 21 June at Gibraltar, the destroyer returned to the East Coast of the United States.
William R. Rush spent the remainder of 1966 on operations off the eastern seaboard, ranging from Newport to the Virginia Capes, pursuing a well-rounded slate of exercises including, among others, such areas as gunfire support and ASW. Early in 1967, the ship enhanced her capabilities as an ASW destroyer by receiving two Drone Antisubmarine Helicopters (DASH) and becoming fully qualified in DASH operations.
William R. Rush departed Newport on 1 March 1967 and crossed the Atlantic in company with . The destroyer subsequently called at Gibraltar, Sardinia, and Athens before transiting the Suez Canal on 1 April. She relieved the following day at Port Suez. William R. Rush then set course for Bahrain. En route, the destroyer was fueled from the French oiler Aritrea at Massawa, Ethiopia, on 6 April.
Arriving at Bahrain on 13 April, William R. Rush joined , the flagship of Rear Admiral E. R. Eastwold, Commander, Middle East Forces (Mid-EastFor). In the ensuing weeks, the destroyer—on her first MidEastFor deployment—visited Masirah Island, where the British Royal Air Force maintained a small logistics airfield; Karachi, Pakistan; and Massawa for a fuel stop. William R. Rush returned to Port Suez on 21 May and was relieved there by .
The next day, William R. Rush transited the Suez Canal on her way back to the Mediterranean. At that time, tension was great in the Suez since the President of the United Arab Republic, Gamal Abdel Nasser, had demanded on 17 May that the United Nations Expeditionary Force (UNEF) be withdrawn from Egypt and the Gaza Strip posthaste. On the 20th, Egypt began patrolling Israel's coast.
The destroyer's commanding officer subsequently reported: "As (William R.) Rush passed through the Canal we could feel an atmosphere of tension all about us; gun emplacements and troops were obvious on both sides of the Canal."
William R. Rush moored alongside , where she spent the first few days of June undergoing a tender availability. However, the outbreak of full-scale war between Israel and her Arab neighbors on 5 June meant a hurried deployment seaward.
The destroyer operated with 6th Fleet units as they conducted emergency contingency force operations until the 17th. She subsequently called at Istanbul from 21 to 26 June before serving as plane guard and picket for south of Crete. The destroyer later touched at Kavalla, Greece, and Sardinia and Rota, homeward bound. She finally reached Newport on 20 July, ending the eventful deployment.
That autumn, William R. Rush operated off the coast of Florida, aiding the Fleet Sonar School in training officers and participating in ASW exercises. She then enjoyed a period of leave and upkeep at her home port to round out the year.
Late in January 1968, William R. Rush operated out of Newport as school ship for the Naval Destroyer School. In mid-March, she continued her training-oriented activities when she embarked 32 prospective destroyer officers and sailed for the Caribbean in company with and . During that cruise, she visited St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Soon after the ship returned to her home port, she shifted to the Boston Naval Shipyard for a four-month overhaul.