USS George E. Badger (DD-196/CG-16/AVP-16/AVD-3/APD-33) was a in the United States Navy during World War II; she was named for Secretary of the Navy George E. Badger (1795–1866). George E. Badger was laid down on 24 September 1918 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company; launched on 6 March 1920; sponsored by Miss Mary B. Wilson, the namesake's granddaughter; and commissioned on 28 July 1920. Service history After shakedown, she was based at Charleston, South Carolina, while operating in Caribbean waters and along the eastern seaboard from Jacksonville, Florida, to Boston. Returning to Philadelphia on 6 June 1922, she was decommissioned there on 11 August 1922. She was subsequently transferred to the Treasury Department on 1 October 1930 for use by the Coast Guard. She was reacquired by the Navy on 21 May 1934 and redesignated AVP-16 on 1 October 1939. World War II Badger recommissioned at Philadelphia on 8 January 1940, Lieutenant Commander Frank Akers in command. During the next year she engaged in training operations in the Caribbean. Redesignated AVD-3 on 2 August 1940, she returned to Norfolk, Virginia on 12 January 1941 and subsequently tended planes while based at NS Argentia, Newfoundland, and Reykjavík, Iceland, until the spring of 1942. Ordered to Charleston, on 26 May 1942, she escorted convoys along the eastern seaboard, in the Gulf of Mexico, and to Recife and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, until returning to Norfolk on 15 January 1943 to be fitted out for Atlantic convoy duty. Through the spring of 1943 she operated out of Argentia escorting convoys bound for the United Kingdom. In June, she underwent overhaul at Norfolk, then sailed on 13 July for North Africa. Steaming with and , she sank on 23 July 1943 after four depth charge attacks broke up the deep-running submarine southwest of Sao Miguel, Azores; all 48 crew on board died. This victory came just a few hours before planes from Bogue attacked and sank not far away. After a landfall at Casablanca, Badger returned to New York on 23 August. During the next two months she made another escort voyage from New York to Casablanca, then returned to New York on 21 October. Departing Hampton Roads on 14 November, she sailed for North Africa with Bogue, , , and Clemson on an offensive anti-submarine patrol. On 12 December 1943, in the mid-Atlantic west of the Canary Islands this patrol