USS Mills (DE-383)

• Namesake Tribute: USS Mills (DE-383) was named in honor of Ensign Lloyd Jones Mills, a US Naval Reserve aviator who was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after being killed in action during the Battle of Midway in 1942. • Class and Construction: Mills was an Edsel-class destroyer escort, built by Brown Shipbuilding Company in Houston, Texas. Her keel was laid on April 26, 1943, and she was launched on July 24, 1943. • Service Entry: The ship was commissioned on October 12, 1943, and promptly began her shakedown cruise and subsequent Atlantic convoy escort duties. • Convoy Escort Role: Throughout World War II, Mills completed 16 round-trip convoy escort missions across the Atlantic, protecting merchant ships from German U-boats. • Battle with U-boats: On April 14, 1944, during convoy operations, USS Mills assisted in rescue and anti-submarine efforts after the destroyer escort USS Holder (DE-401) was torpedoed by U-371 off Algeria. • Rescue Operations: Mills played a crucial role in rescuing survivors from torpedoed ships and was credited with saving many lives during her service. • Weather Ship Conversion: In 1945, after the end of major hostilities in Europe, Mills was converted to a weather ship to support transatlantic flights and naval operations in the North Atlantic. • Cold War Service: The ship was recommissioned during the early years of the Cold War and served as a radar picket ship in the Atlantic, helping to detect potential Soviet aircraft or missile attacks. • Operation "DEW Line": Mills operated as part of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line extension at sea, providing early warning radar coverage during the 1950s and 1960s. • Decommissioning and Legacy: USS Mills was finally decommissioned in January 1968 and struck from the Navy list in 1968. Her long and varied service history exemplifies the adaptability of the Edsall-class destroyer escorts.