USS O'Hare (DD889), 1949

O’Hare (DD–889) was laid down 27 January 1945 at Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Texas; launched 22 June 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Selma O’Hare, mother of LCDR E. H. O’Hare; and commissioned 29 November 1945, CDR R. W. Leach in command.

After spending 1946 in operations ranging from New Brunswick down to the Florida Keys, she embarked her first group of midshipmen for a cruise to Latin America during the summer of 1947. Departing Norfolk early in May 1948 she sailed to the Mediterranean temporarily serving under the United Nations’ flag as an evacuation ship off Haifa, Palestine, 24 June through July, during the first postwar Arab-Israeli conflict.

O’Hare was converted during 1953 to a radar picket ship (DDR–889) and in 1958 received installation of the electronic data system. The next major modification, in in 1963, a FRAM Mk I overhaul, restored her original designation.

The increasing tempo and scope of conflict in Vietnam brought DD–889 an assignment to WestPac duty. Steaming from Norfolk, 1 June 1966, she assumed station as a gun support ship along the coast of Vietnam on 15 July. After firing missions in all four Corps areas in the South and operations off the communist North, O’Hare returned home 17 December via the Suez Canal completing a circumnavigation of the world. She remained along the East Coast until January 1969 when with Squadron 32 she again deployed to the Mediterranean.

[Taken from the entry on O'Hare in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.]