USS Mills (DE-383)

USS Mills (DER-383), circa 1965
History
United States
Namesake:	Lloyd Jones Mills
Builder:	Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, Texas
Laid down:	26 March 1943
Launched:	26 May 1943
Commissioned:	12 October 1943
Decommissioned:	27 October 1970
Reclassified:	DER-383, 1 November 1956
Struck:	1 August 1974
Identification:	Callsign: NJUT
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 12 March 1975
Notes:	Washington Naval District at Baltimore, Maryland, 3 September 1968
General characteristics
Class and type:	Edsall-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,253 tons standard 1,590 tons full load
Length:	306 feet (93.27 m)
Beam:	36.58 feet (11.15 m)
Draft:	10.42 full load feet (3.18 m)
Propulsion:	4 FM diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6,000 shp (4.5 MW), 2 screws
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h)
Range:	9,100 nmi. at 12 knots (17,000 km at 22 km/h)
Complement:	8 officers, 201 enlisted
Armament:	3 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 guns (3 × 1) 2 × 40 mm AA guns (1 × 2) 8 × 20 mm AA guns (8 × 1) 3 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (1 × 3) 8 × depth charge projectors 1 × depth charge projector (hedgehog) 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Mills (DE-383) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. Post-war, she performed additional duties for the Navy, including those of a radar picket ship and a safety and support ship for Operation Deep Freeze.

She was named in honor of ensign Lloyd Jones Mills who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously for his brave actions in the Aleutian Islands in 1942. She was laid down 26 March 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas; launched 26 May 1943; sponsored by Mrs. James E. Mills; and commissioned 12 October 1943, Lt. Comdr. J. S. Muzzy, USCG, in command.

After shakedown out of Bermuda, Mills trained nucleus crews for frigates and destroyer escorts off Norfolk, Virginia, until 10 January 1944 when she began transatlantic convoy escort duty. On her second voyage into the Mediterranean, Mills’ convoy was attacked before dawn 1 April 1944, 56 miles west of Algiers by German torpedo bombers. SS Jared Ingersoll, a Liberty ship, was hit and set blazing. Mills picked up survivors who had abandoned ship, and sent a boarding party to extinguish her fires. British tug HMS Mindfull and Mills then towed Jared Ingersoll to Algiers.