She is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Admiral Albert Gleaves, who is credited with improving the accuracy and precision of torpedoes and other naval arms.

Departing for shakedown training soon after commissioning, Gleaves operated off the Atlantic coast and in Caribbean waters until returning to Boston 19 March 1941 to prepare for convoy duty.

Subsequently, Gleaves made four other convoy voyages to Iceland, Ireland, and North Africa protecting the vital flow of supplies to the European Theater.

A determined bombardment in the face of heavy return fire brought about the destruction of at least three of those craft and demolished the boat repair facilities and other harbor installations around the port.

During that action Gleaves received some of the few battle scars of her career when an 88-millimeter shell landed close aboard and perforated her hull with shrapnel splinters.

Judicious application of gun-fire, depth charges and violent maneuvering at maximum speed brought her safely through that attack, leaving four of the craft sunk in her wake.

In December 1944, Gleaves was assigned as fire support ship near Allied positions on the Franco-Italian frontier, and performed this duty until sailing for the United States in February 1945.

After a period of outfitting at New York and training activities in the Caribbean, she departed 30 June 1945 from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor 4 August.

Early in the evening of 23 November SS Adabelle Lykes, en route from Shanghai to San Francisco with 2000 service men and women embarked, discovered a case of smallpox aboard.

Gleaves received five battle stars on the European-African-Middle Eastern Area Service Medal for participating in the following operations: 1 Star/Sicillian occupation – 9 to 15 July 1943 and 28 July to 17 August 1943 1 Star/Salerno landings – 9 to 21 September 1943 1 Star/west Coast of Italy Operations – 1944 Anzio-Nettuno advanced landings – 22 to 28 January 1944 1 Star/Anti-Submarine assessment – Mediterranean – 14 Many 1944 1 Star/Invasion of Southern France – 15 August to 25 September 1944 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.