USS Coates (DE-685) was a Rudderow-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy during World War II and later in the 1950s and 1960s.

He served on the USS New York where he was commended by his commanding officer for his seamanship in damage control following an engineering casualty.

Coates served as a school ship for student officers and nucleus crews at Miami between 8 April 1944 and 15 September 1945, when she reported at Naval Base Charleston,[1] South Carolina for inactivation.

Coates resumed local operations, training exercises off the Virginia Capes and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and took part in a midshipman cruise to Brazil in summer 1953.

Through 1963, Coates conducted training cruises of various lengths in Long Island Sound and to ports in the West Indies and along the east coast.