USS Greer

USS Greer
Shipname	Greer
Shipnamesake	Samuel Greer
Shiptype	destroyer
Class	Flush-deck destroyer
Displacement	1,090 tons
Length	314 ft 4 in
Beam	31 ft 8 in
Draft	9 ft 3 in
Propulsion	Steam turbines
Speed	35 kn
Complement	148
Armament	4 × 4 in guns; 8 × 21 in torpedo tubes
Builder	Bath Iron Works
Launched	1920
Commissioned	1920
Decommissioned	1945

USS Greer

USS Greer was a United States Navy destroyer of the Wickes/flush-deck era that served between World War I and World War II and saw active convoy and escort duty in the Atlantic during the early years of United States involvement in World War II. The ship became internationally notable for its 1939 encounter with a German submarine, an incident that influenced Franklin D. Roosevelt administration policy and contributed to the development of the United States' pre-war Neutrality Act-era naval posture. Greer later escorted convoys and conducted anti-submarine operations supporting Allied logistics between Newfoundland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom.

Construction and commissioning

Greer was laid down at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine during the post-World War I naval expansion, part of a larger program that included contemporaries such as USS Wickes (DD-75) and USS Clemson (DD-186). Keel-laying and launch ceremonies involved shipyard officials and naval officers under the oversight of the United States Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair. Commissioned in 1920, Greer joined the Atlantic Fleet with a complement drawn from crews who had served on destroyers like USS O'Brien (DD-51) and officers schooled at the United States Naval Academy.

Design and specifications

Greer belonged to the flush-deck destroyer lineage, sharing design ancestry with the Wickes-class destroyer and the Clemson-class destroyer. The ship featured steam turbine propulsion fed by oil-fired boilers, enabling speeds up to approximately 35 knots—similar to contemporaries such as USS Buchanan (DD-131). Armament comprised four 4-inch/50 caliber guns and multiple 21-inch torpedo tubes, with depth charge racks added in later refits for anti-submarine warfare akin to modifications made to USS Reuben James (DD-245). The hull form and engineering reflected lessons from Admiral William S. Sims's emphasis on speed and maneuverability, while radio and signaling gear matched standards set by Naval Communications practices of the interwar period.

Operational history

During the 1920s and 1930s Greer conducted training, exercises, and goodwill visits along the United States East Coast, the Caribbean Sea, and the Azores, operating with squadrons that included ships from Destroyer Squadron 6 and escort groups similar to those centered on USS Langley (CV-1). Crews participated in naval maneuvers overseen by commanders influenced by doctrines promoted at the Naval War College and by figures such as Admiral William V. Pratt. Interwar routines alternated between reserve periods at Philadelphia Navy Yard and active deployments for fleet concentrations with units from the Battle Fleet and the Scouting Fleet.

Engagement with U-boat (1939) and diplomatic impact

On 4 September 1939, while conducting patrols in the North Atlantic, Greer had a notable interaction with a German U-boat that culminated in an exchange of depth-charge attacks and a reported torpedo sighting. The incident occurred shortly after Germany's invasion of Poland and during heightened Atlantic tensions involving ships transiting between Newfoundland, Iceland, and Norway. Reports of the encounter reached Washington, D.C. and were cited by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in public addresses that framed a more assertive "shoot-on-sight" policy for American naval forces confronting Axis submarines—an approach that affected relations with Nazi Germany and provoked debate in the United States Congress over interpretation of the Neutrality Acts. The episode influenced correspondence between the State Department and the Department of the Navy, and was invoked in communications with British officials including representatives of the Foreign Office and the Admiralty to coordinate escort practices and convoy reporting.

World War II service

Following the 1941 entry of the United States into World War II, Greer was assigned to Atlantic convoy escort and anti-submarine patrols, operating from bases such as Casablanca, Hampton Roads, and Icelandic staging points used by units coordinated through Allied convoy command structures and the British Admiralty. Greer escorted merchantmen in convoys that linked the United States to United Kingdom ports and protected supply lines supporting operations like Operation Torch and transatlantic reinforcement efforts for the United States Army and Royal Air Force. Crewmembers trained with sonar and depth-charge tactics developed from studies at the Anti-Submarine Warfare Tactical School and cooperated with Royal Navy escort vessels and Coast Guard cutters to prosecute contacts with German Kriegsmarine submarines. Throughout the war Greer performed rescue operations for torpedoed merchant crews, delivered survivors to convoy commodores, and underwent periodic overhauls at shipyards including Charleston Navy Yard.

Decommissioning and fate

After the cessation of hostilities in 1945, Greer was decommissioned as part of the postwar drawdown alongside other flush-deck destroyers such as USS Clemson (DD-186). Struck from the Naval Vessel Register, she was subsequently sold for scrapping in the immediate postwar years during a period that also saw disposal of vessels under programs administered by War Shipping Administration successors. Artifacts and shipboard logs from Greer were distributed to repositories like the Naval History and Heritage Command and historical societies in Maine and Newport, Rhode Island for preservation and study.

Category:Wickes-class destroyers Category:United States Navy ships