USS Slater in dazzle camouflage

In April we posted about the drydocking of USS Slater, the last World War II destroyer escort still afloat in the United States, at  Caddell Dry Dock in Staten Island.  Yesterday, her repairs completed, newly cleaned, and painted, she returned to her home port, up the Hudson in Albany, NY.  Her new paint job is  dazzling.  Literally.  She has been repainted in the “dazzle” camouflage scheme that she wore in service in 1945.

Destroyer USS Slater Voyages Past Garrison, Cold Spring on Its Way Home

USS Slater was built at Tampa Shipyard and commissioned in 1944.  After serving in convoy and other duties in World War II, she was transferred to the Hellenic Navy and renamed Aetos (“Eagle”) where she served until she was decommissioned in 1991.  Destroyer escort sailors from around the nation donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to bring the Slater back to the United States as a museum ship. She returned to the US in 1993 and has been a museum ship in Albany since 1996.