USS Rich (DD-820)

USS Rich (DD-820) underway in March 1968
History
Namesake:	LT(JG) Ralph McMaster Rich
Builder:	Consolidated Steel Corporation
Laid down:	16 May 1945
Launched:	5 October 1945
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Ralph McMaster Rich
Commissioned:	3 July 1946
Decommissioned:	10 November 1977
Reclassified:	DDE-820, March 1950
Struck:	15 December 1977
Homeport:	Norfolk VA
Motto:	"Second To None"
Nickname(s):	"Deadeye Dick" By Vietnam Crew of 1968
Honors and awards:	Battle Efficiency "E" Gunnery and Engineering
Fate:	Sold for scrapping 5 December 1979
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gearing (DD710)
Type:	Anti Aircraft Before FRAM 1 than ASW
Displacement:	2,425 tons
Length:	390 ft 6 in (119.02 m)
Beam:	41 ft 1 in (12.52 m)
Draught:	18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Speed:	35 kts
Complement:	336 officers and enlisted
Armament:	6 5"/38 (3x2), 16 40mm (3x4, 2x2)., 20 20mm (10x2), 5 21-inch torpedo tubes (1x5), 6 depth charge projectors, 2 ddpth charge tracks.

USS Rich (DD-820/DDE-820) was a Gearing-class destroyer in the United States Navy during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was the second ship named in honor of Lieutenant (j.g.) Ralph McMaster Rich (1916–1942), who was awarded the Navy Cross for his leadership as a fighter pilot off the USS Enterprise (CV-6) during the Battle of Midway.

The second Rich (DD-820) was laid down on 16 May 1945 by the Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas; launched on 5 October 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Ralph McM. Rich, widow of LT(JG) Rich; and commissioned on 3 July 1946, with Commander R. C. Houston in command.

After shakedown in the Caribbean, Rich departed Norfolk, Virginia, in late October for a Mediterranean tour, most of which, from December 1946 to March 1947, was spent on patrol in the Atlantic. Returning to the United States in March, she was converted to a specialized antisubmarine ship at the New York Naval Shipyard; and, in the fall, she resumed operations with the 2nd Fleet. Throughout 1948 and into 1949, she operated as a unit of a hunter-killer (HUK) group based at Key West, Florida, in the development of anti-submarine warfare tactics. In August 1949, the destroyer crossed the Atlantic for a brief visit to Cherbourg; then returned to east coast and Caribbean operations. In the fall of 1950, Rich, redesignated an escort destroyer (DDE-820) the previous March, returned to the Mediterranean for a month of exercises with the 6th Fleet. By January 1951, she was conducting exercises in the Caribbean; and, in February, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for overhaul.