USS Orleck DD-886 Stats

Vessel Type: USN Gearing Class Destroyer
Built by: Consolidated Steel Shipbuilding, Orange, Texas; Laid Down on Nov 28, 1944
Named: ORLECK on Jan 11, 1945
Launched: May 12, 1945
Commissioned: September 15, 1945 (last destroyer commissioned at end of WWII)
Length: 390 feet, 6 in. Beam (Width): 40 feet, 10 in.
Displacement (Weight): 2,250 Tons
Original Cost in 1945: $6,313,000.00
Served proudly in Korea and Vietnam
Awarded: 18 Battle Stars (4 in the Korean Conflict ; 14 during Vietnam War); “Top Gun” of USN 7th Fleet
Initiator: “Train Busters Club” of Korea
Named: “Gray Ghost of the Vietnam Coast”
Last Active FRAMed (Fleet Rehabilitation & Modernization)
Gearing Class Destroyer in the Pacific; served longer than any other such ship.
Decommissioned and Transferred to NATO-allied Turkey on October 1, 1982. Served in Turkish Navy 16 years as the TCG Yucetepe D-345
2nd Decommissioning: April 1, 1998
Transferred back to US: 2000 to Southeast TX War Memorial & Heritage Foundation (SETWMHF), Orange, TX
Museum Ship: 2000-2005, Orange, TX
Damaged by Hurricane Rita: September 2005; remained in storage dock until 2010
Arrived Lake Charles: May 20, 2010
Transferred to: USS Orleck Naval Museum, Inc. from SETWMHF June 22, 2010 by act of donation.
Opened to the Public: As the USS Orleck Naval Museum, Inc. at its temporary berth: 604 N. Enterprise Blvd., Lake Charles, LA – April 10, 2011.
Designated as the Official Vietnam Memorial Museum Ship for the State of Louisiana.