The USS Fred T. Berry (DD/DDE-858) was a Gearing-class destroyer laid down in 1944, launched, and commissioned in 1945. After training, she completed a tour of duty in the Far East in 1947, followed by her second Far Eastern cruise in 1948. The destroyer underwent a modernization overhaul a year later to upgrade her anti-submarine warfare capabilities, after which she joined the Atlantic Fleet exercises and was reclassified as an escort destroyer, DDE-858. With the outbreak of the Korean War, the ship was deployed to the Mediterranean and soon joined the 7th Fleet in the Far East in 1950, tasked with screening and escorting fast carriers. Over the next three years, the vessel served with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. From 1954 through 1963, she sailed the western Atlantic, employed in anti-submarine warfare development with experimental hunter-killer groups. After completing her duty cruise in 1966 with DESRON 12, and earning two campaign stars and the Combat Action Ribbon for Vietnam service, the USS Fred T. Berry was decommissioned and stricken from the Register in 1970. Following Navy construction standards, almost all naval vessels built during the 1940s contained asbestos, which exposed naval personnel to the high risk of contamination and developing severe related diseases decades later.
Robert King from Brewer, ME
760-621-6147
