USS William R. Rush (DD-714)

USS William R. Rush at Tigné Point, Malta in 1961
History
United States
Laid down:	19 October 1944
Launched:	8 July 1945
Commissioned:	21 September 1945
Decommissioned:	1 July 1978
Renamed:	Kang Won (DD-922)
Struck:	1 July 1978
Fate:	Transferred to South Korea in 1978; Retired in 2000
Status:	Scrapped, December 2016
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gearing-class destroyer
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 kt
Armament:	6 5", 12 40 mm., 20 20 mm., 5 21" tt, 6 dcp., 2 dct.

USS William R. Rush (DD/DDR-714) was a Gearing-class destroyer in the United States Navy during the Korean War. She was named for William R. Rush.

William R. Rush was laid down on 15 October 1944 at Newark, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation; launched on 8 July 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy Flagg Biddle, a cousin of Captain Rush; and commissioned on 21 September 1945, Commander Theodore E. Vogeley in command.

After fitting out at the New York Navy Yard and shakedown training out of Guantanamo Bay and Casco Bay, Maine, William R. Rush took part in 8th Fleet maneuvers off the eastern seaboard into May 1946. The destroyer then moved southward, to Pensacola, Florida, where she served as a plane guard for Ranger as the veteran carrier conducted flight training operations. Arriving back at Newport, Rhode Island, her home port, on 28 July, William R. Rush spent the rest of the year in local operations.

The destroyer departed Newport on 9 February 1948, bound for Europe and her first overseas deployment. She touched at ports of call in England, Ireland, Norway, France, Germany, Denmark, French Morocco, and Gibraltar before returning to Newport in June. For the next two years, William R. Rush operated off the eastern seaboard, exercising with submarines and escorting and plane-guarding for carriers.