USS Slater

Cannon class destroyer escort

USS Slater (DE 766) is a that served in the United States Navy and later in the Hellenic (Greek) Navy. Following service during World War II, the ship was transferred to Greece and renamed Aetos. Decommissioned in 1991, the destroyer escort was returned to the United States. USS Slater is now a museum ship on the Hudson River in Albany, New York, the only one of its kind afloat in the United States. As of 2020, fewer than 12 destroyer escorts survive, with Slater the only one in its wartime configuration. Slater was designated a National Historic Landmark on 2 March 2012. USS Slater was struck by the Hudson River touring ship Dutch Apple on 10 September 2019. A mechanical issue aboard Dutch Apple was to blame for the collision.

Frank Olga Slater was born on 19 December 1920 in Kennamer Cove, Alabama, one of twelve children of James Lafayette Slater, a sharecropper and Lenora (Morgan) Slater. He grew up in Fyffe, Alabama. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 10 February 1942. Upon completion of his basic training, he was transferred to the Receiving Station at Pearl Harbor, and assigned to the heavy cruiser San Francisco on 4 April 1942. On 12 November 1942 he was killed in action at his battle station during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

On 1 March 1951, Slater was transferred to the Hellenic Navy under the Truman Doctrine, and renamed Aetos ("Eagle") (D01). Along with three other Cannon class ships, she made up what was known as the "Wild Beasts" Flotilla. The ship did patrol duty in the eastern Aegean and the Dodecanese and also served as a training vessel for naval cadets. Aetos was decommissioned in 1991, and Greece donated the ship to the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association.

Slater has been featured in three motion pictures. The ship was seen in The Guns of Navarone (1961) and I Aliki sto Naftiko (Η Αλίκη στο Ναυτικό/Alice in the Navy, filmed in 1961) while in Greek service. In August 2008 part of the Japanese film Last Operations Under the Orion (2009) was filmed on board. Although the film depicts a battle between a Japanese submarine and a US Navy destroyer, Slater was used instead despite being a destroyer escort. Scenes were filmed on board, and a to scale model of the ship was built and used for CGI shots at sea.