USS Charles R. Ware (DD-865), was a of the United States Navy in service from 1945 to 1974. After her decommissioning, she was sunk as a target in 1981.
Namesake
thumb|left|Charles R. Ware with VS-6 pilots, seated, 3rd from left
Charles Rollins Ware was born on 11 March 1911 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He enlisted in the United States Navy on 14 June 1929, and in 1930 was appointed to the United States Naval Academy. After graduation in 1934, Ware served on the battleship and the destroyer until February 1940, when he entered flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.
Serving as a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber pilot with Scouting Squadron 6 (VS-6) based on the aircraft carrier , Lieutenant Ware and his division of six SBDs attacked the carrier Kaga on 4 June 1942, one of four Japanese carriers sunk in the Battle of Midway. During their return to the Enterprise they successfully fought off attacks by Japanese fighters, but ran out of fuel and were forced to ditch. One crew was rescued and another crew was picked up by a Japanese destroyer and later executed. Ware and the other SBD crewmen were reported missing in action. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
The planned destroyer escort USS Charles R. Ware (DE-547) was named for him, but its construction was cancelled in 1944 before construction could begin.
Construction
Charles R. Ware was laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Staten Island in New York on 1 November 1944, launched on 12 April 1945 by Mrs. Z. Ware and commissioned on 21 July 1945. the first passage of a naval force through the Saint Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes. She took part in the Naval Review in Lake Saint Louis on 26 June, which was taken by Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and sailed on to call at a number of United States and Canadian ports. During her 1960 Mediterranean tour, she carried German naval observers during an exercise in the Ionian Sea.
Charles R. Ware was decommissioned on 12 December 1974 and was sunk as a target in the Caribbean on 15 November 1981.