USS Gillette (DE-681)

History
United States
Laid down	24 August 1943
Launched	25 September 1943
Commissioned	27 October 1943
Decommissioned	3 February 1947
Stricken	1 December 1972
Fate	Sold for scrap 11 September 1973
General characteristics
Displacement	1,740 full 1,400 tons, standard
Length	306 ft 0 in (93.27 m)
Beam	36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Draft	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion	GE turbo-electric drive, 12,000  shp (8.9 MW) two propellers
Speed	24 knots (44 km/h)
Range	4,940 nautical miles (9,150 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement	15 officers, 198 men
Armament	3 × DP guns, 3 × 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tubes, 4 × AA gun, 8 × 20 mm cannon, 1 × hedgehog projector, 2 × depth charge tracks, 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors

USS Gillette (DE-681) was a

in service from 1943 to 1947. She was finally scrapped in 1973.

Namesake

Douglas Wiley Gillette was born on 10 September 1918 in

Battle of Santa Cruz Islands

on 26 October 1942.

History

The ship

on 27 October 1943.

Battle of the Atlantic

After

, as well before returning to Boston 2 June.

From 4 July 1944 to 18 February 1945, Gillette made four round trip transatlantic escort voyages – three out of Hampton Roads and one from New York – to Oran and United Kingdom ports protecting Allied shipping. She subsequently served as a submarine training ship at New London, Connecticut, until 14 April 1945.

On 14 April 1945, she sailed for

, where she moored on 17 December 1945.

Gillette remained at San Diego until

at San Diego.

Gillette was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1972, sold on for scrapping on 11 September 1973.^[1]

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• navsource.org: USS Gillette
• The USS Gillette Homepage Archived 18 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine