PORT ARTHUR, Texas — The USS Orleck DD-886 arrived at the Gulf Copper Drydock in Port Arthur Thursday, Dec. 15 around 8 p.m. after leaving Lake Charles around 9 a.m. that Wednesday.
The Orleck use to be a floating museum in Orange, which launched in 1945 at the end of the war but was later moved to Lake Charles.
The ship is expected to be in Port Arthur for about a month. It will be washed and inspected. It will then be evaluated to determine what work needs to be done to the ship.
Then, the cost of the repairs needed to move the ship to Florida will be determined. Upon completion, the ship will head to Jacksonville to become the flagship of the Jacksonville Naval Museum.
Lieutenant Orleck, who had received numerous other medals during his life was honored with the rare naming of a ship, a United States Destroyer, after him. The ship was approved on Jan. 11, 1945, launched May 12, 1945 and commissioned on Sept. 15, 1945, according to the Orleck website.
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Having been commissioned right at the end of World War II, the ship entered into service at the beginning of what became known as the Cold War and through all those years, she operated in that atmosphere with her service primarily in the 7th Fleet in the Pacific.
In Korea, the ship was the initiator of the "Train Busters Club" in that she took out two enemy supply trains in the mountains as she silently and without lights waited in a cove for the train to approach, then opened fire shooting out the tracks before the train and then behind. At that point she would then spend the necessary time to blow the remainder of the train apart.
During Vietnam, she gained the reputation of Top Gun, having fired more rounds in support of our ground troops than any other ship. She developed the nickname, "Grey Ghost of the Vietnam Coast" because she always seemed to be there to provide fire cover for pinned down marines who called for her assistance.
At the later part of her service she was used as a training vessel for the Naval Reserve Forces. At times she starred in movies and her most notable was in "Winds of War" mini-series.