USS Fitch (DD-462/DMS-25), was a of the United States Navy. Namesake LeRoy Fitch was born on 1 October 1835 in Logansport, Indiana. He was a member of the United States Naval Academy class of 1856, and served with distinction in the American Civil War and afterward. Commanding in the Mississippi Squadron, in 1863 he pursued General John Hunt Morgan, CSA, the famed raider, for up the Ohio River, frustrating Morgan's attempts to cross the river and retire to Confederate territory. Commander Fitch died in Logansport, Indiana on 13 April 1875. Construction and commissioning Fitch was launched on 14 June 1941 by Boston Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. H. W. Thomas, grandniece of Commander Fitch. The ship was commissioned on 3 February 1942. She was reclassified DMS-25 on 15 November 1944, and again classified DD-462 on 15 July 1955. Service history Fitchs first mission, from 1 July to 5 August 1942, was to escort the aircraft carrier to a point off the Gold Coast, where the carrier flew off United States Army Air Forces planes for Accra. The destroyer returned to Norfolk on 5 August for exercises in preparation for the assault on North Africa, for which she sailed from Bermuda 25 October. Screening Ranger and two escort carriers, Fitch took part in the landings at Fedhala, French Morocco, on 8 November, and guarded the carriers as they flew Army planes off to the captured airfield at Port Lyautey. Returning to Norfolk 24 November, Fitch joined in exercises in Casco and Chesapeake Bays, and performed coastal escort duty, sailing as far south as the Panama Canal Zone, through the remainder of 1942. On 8 January 1943, Fitch cleared Norfolk with Ranger on the first of two voyages to launch aircraft to North African bases. Operations with Ranger completed, Fitch served on patrol out of NS Argentia, Newfoundland, from 6 April to 12 May, then sailed to Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland, to join the British Home Fleet for patrol duty between that base and Iceland. She served on this duty through the summer, protecting northern convoys, then returned to Norfolk on 9 August. Sailing on 2 September 1943 to escort a convoy to Derry, Northern Ireland, Fitch continued to Thurso Bay, where on 20 September she embarked Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Admiral Harold R. Stark for transportation to Scapa Flow. Operating out of Scapa Flow for the next