USS Bray (APD-139)

History


Name:	USS Bray
Namesake:	Raymond Leon Bray
Ordered:	1942
Builder:	Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Laid down:	January 1944
Launched:	15 April 1944
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Mattie M. Bray
Commissioned:	4 September 1944
Reclassified:	APD-139, 16 July 1945
Decommissioned:	10 May 1946
Struck:	1 June 1960
Fate:	Sunk as target, 27 March 1963
General characteristics
Class and type:	Crosley-class high speed transport
Displacement:	1,450 long tons (1,473 t) light 1,673 long tons (1,700 t) standard
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11 m)
Draft:	13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion:	Turbo-electric drive, 12,000 hp (8.9 MW)
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Complement:	221
Armament:	2 × single 5"/38 caliber guns 2 × twin 40 mm guns 10 × single 20 mm guns 3 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 8 × depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Bray (DE-709) was a Rudderow-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, named after Raymond Leon Bray, who was born in Greenville, Texas on 1 April 1918. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1940, and was killed in action at Gavutu, Solomon Islands, on 7 August 1942. Corporal Bray was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism.

Bray was launched on 15 April 1944 by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, sponsored by Mrs. Mattie M. Bray, mother of Corporal Bray; and commissioned on 4 September 1944, with Commander J. A. Hetherington II, USNR, in command.

Bray was assigned to Escort Division 12, United States Atlantic Fleet, and during late 1944, participated in anti-submarine operations off Long Island, and conducted exercises with American submarines. Following repairs at the Boston Navy Yard as a result of a collision with the submarine Cuttlefish (SS-171) on 8 December, Bray reported to Norfolk, Virginia, early in 1945, and conducted training for prospective destroyer and destroyer escort crews. She later trained with submarine crews off New London, Connecticut, until mid-July 1945. During this period, she also participated in occasional anti-submarine duty along the East coast. On 19 March 1945 she steamed to the aid of the coastal minesweeper Heroic (AMc-84), saving her from sinking.

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