USS John R. Craig (DD-885)  USS "John R. Craig" (DD-885) was a in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1979. She was sunk as a target in June 1980. The destroyer was named for Lieutenant Commander John R. Craig, USN (1906–1943), commanding officer of killed in action when the submarine was sunk by enemy Japanese destroyers in the Blackett Strait on 5 March 1943 and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. "John R. Craig" was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas, on 17 November 1944. She was launched on 14 April 1945 by Mrs. Lilian Hyde Craig, widow of Lt Cdr Craig, and commissioned on 20 August 1945. After shakedown in Caribbean "John R. Craig", departed Charleston, South Carolina on 19 January 1946 for Naval Station San Diego, arriving 1 February. She departed 7 February to join the United States Seventh Fleet and assist in repatriating Japanese soldiers from North China. The destroyer returned San Diego on 31 January 1947. In the years prior to the Korean conflict "John P. Craig" alternated Far Eastern deployments with periods of training off the California coast. After the Korean War broke out, "John R. Craig" arrived in the combat zone on 19 February 1951. She immediately commenced operations with Task Force 77, screening aircraft carrier strikes on enemy shore positions. During the Chinese spring offensive the destroyer performed shore bombardment in the Wonsan area, knocking out enemy installations and disrupting transportation. But for two brief periods in San Diego, she continued operations off Korea during the remainder of the conflict. Following the cessation of hostilities in July 1953, "John R. Craig" continued patrol operations south of the 38th parallel. From 1954 to 1962 the destroyer engaged in exercises off the West Coast with annual deployments to the Far East. During her 1955 cruise she took an active part in the evacuation of Chinese nationalists from the Dachen Islands during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis. Subsequent cruises consisted of exercises with the Japanese Self Defense Force in 1957, anti-submarine warfare exercises, Taiwan Strait patrol and maneuvers with the Republic of China Navy during the 1961 cruise. She arrived San Diego 6 March 1962 and underwent an extensive Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul at the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard at San Francisco, California, between 6 March 1962 and 15 March 1963. During the Vietnam War, "John R. Craig" served as a plane guard for aircraft carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Operation Sea Dragon, patrolled on search and rescue duties, and carried out naval gunfire support missions.