USS Gregory, 1,060-ton Wickes-class Destroyer No. 82, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned in June 1918, she escorted convoys between France and England until early November 1918, then patrolled out of Gibraltar. During the months after the 11 November Armistice, Gregory operated in the Mediterranean and Black Seas supporting diplomatic and relief efforts. She was intermittently active after her return to the U.S. in June 1919 and was formally decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in July 1922.

After nearly two decades in reserve, Gregory was recalled to active duty and converted to a high-speed transport. Recommissioned with the new hull number APD 3 in November 1940, she conducted amphibious warfare training in the Atlantic and Caribbean into early 1942, then was transferred to the Pacific. She took part in exercises in Hawaiian waters and off the west coast until mid-1942.

Gregory next was ordered to the South Pacific, where the Allies' first major offensive against the Japanese was being prepared. On 7 August 1942, she landed Marines during the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, in the southern Solomon Islands. For the next month, she provided transport and other support services in the area.

On the night of 4–5 September 1942, while patrolling off Guadalcanal's Lunga Point in company with Little, APD 4, she encountered a greatly superior force of Japanese destroyers Yudachi, Hatsuyuki, and Murakumo. In a brief, intense and very-one sided battle, Gregory was riddled with enemy gunfire and soon sank. Her commanding officer, LCdr. Harry. F. Bauer, was lost in the action.

Gregory earned two stars on her Asiatic-Pacific campaign ribbon.

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A second USS Gregory, Fletcher-class DD 802, was commissioned 29 July 1944. USS Harry F. Bauer, Robert H. Smith-class destroyer-minelayer DM 26, was commissioned 22 September 1944. Like USS Hugh W. Hadley, named for Little’s commanding officer, Harry F. Bauer earned a Presidential Unit Citation for action off Okinawa.
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In July 1992, nearly fifty years after her loss, a sunken U.S. Navy high-speed transport was discovered and briefly examined on the sea floor some miles off Lunga Point. Though its specific indentity could not be determined, this ship is either Gregory or her sister, Little.

Sources: Clark, Curt, The Famed Green Dragons; Naval History & Heritage Command including Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.