The USS Moore was an Edsall Class Destroyer Escort ( DE ) named after Seaman First Class Fred Kenneth Moore, killed in action December 7, 1941 aboard the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, and awarded the Navy Cross for remaining at his anti-aircraft gun and keeping it in action until he was killed by an explosion . She had a crew of 8 Officers and 201 Enlisted Sailors.

Captain of the USS Moore was Lt. Cmdr. H.P. Michiels, who himself had been at Pearl Harbor on December 7th aboard the USS Sacramento, and the first wave of Japanese planes passed directly over his ship on their way to "Battleship Row".  The Sacramento claims to have downed two of the Japanese Zeros.  His granddaughter, Mary,  recently contacted me and relayed that story.  If there are any more USS Moore people out there, I would be happy to here from them. 

This is the USS Moore sometime during her World War II duty. She is in her "war paint", painted in camouflage, which was the norm for ships in the Atlantic in war duty then.  I know she did duty in the Mediterranean, from one of dad's pictures standing on the Rock of Gibraltar, and from some subtle newspaper clippings he sent to mom about the invasion of Italy, knowing that the censors would have stricken out any mention if he said directly where he was.

Commemorative of the Commissioning Ceremony of the USS Moore. No dates were printed on the card as it was wartime and that information was classified. She was launched 21 December 1942, commissioned 1 July 1943 (card graciously provided by Mary, Capt Michiels granddaughter)

And of course the primary function of a Destroyer Escort is to be a "body guard", whether escorting convoys across the Atlantic or providing security to other ships.  While researching the DE-240, I ran across this ship's patch on a website from the USS Moore (sorry I don't remember where and and my apologies to the gentleman or woman who posted it).  This was about a year or so ago and I just put it aside.  When Mary, Captain Michiels granddaughter, contacted me, I got it out again and studied it a little closer, trying to figure out what the center of the patch was.  I "zoomed in" with my computer and that is a little number 10 just below the "M" and after a bit more squinting I realized it was an aircraft carrier!  I assumed it stood for Carrier Task Force 10, a unit of ships put together with the aircraft carrier as Queen of the group.  So I did a search for such a unit.  Didn't find the task force, but the patch I found below from the USS Moore's gives it away -

The USS Moore served Destroyer Escort duty with the USS Yorktown. (This is the 4th USS Yorktown, named in honor of the CV-5 Yorktown sunk at the Battle of Midway.)  She set to sea out of Norfolk, Virginia in Spring 1943 for her sea trials off of Trinidad.  She would have been quite a prize for a German U-boat, a shiny new aircraft carrier still untried and still getting the kinks out. (We are just learning  just now how many German submarines were really off the coast of the United States now, it was such a well kept secret from the American public during Word War II). By the end of the year the Yorktown was through the Panama Canal and in the Pacific for the invasion of the Gilbert Islands.  The USS Moore stayed in the Atlantic and soon after headed for the Mediterranean.