The story of the Veterans Museum began on the steel decks of the USS Orleck. Each year, the Destroyer USS Orleck Association—organized by Bob Orleck, nephew of ship namesake Joseph Orleck—hosts reunions for former crew members aboard the USS Orleck. These very sailors told some of the first stories that became a part of the Veterans Museum collection. Ahead of this year’s reunion, where we’ll be interviewing more Orleck sailors, Bob Orleck has generously shared a brief history of the USS Orleck.
USS ORLECK DD 886
“Three Lives and a Happy Ending”
by Bob Orleck
The story of USS ORLECK DD 886 is epic. Built for an intended ten years of active service, she sailed for an incredible thirty-seven years as an American warship followed by sixteen more years after having been given to NATO ally, Turkey. Commissioned at the end of World War II, she saw service during the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, and peacetime, and then in Turkey during Operation Desert Storm.
Her story begins when Joseph Orleck, a son to poor Russian immigrants was born in the US on June 22, 1906. He joined the Navy when he became of age, made it his career, distinguished himself militarily, rose in the ranks to command USS NAUSET AT 89.
During the World War II invasion of Salerno, he gave his life in service to his country
having gone down with his ship after it had been hit by German bombs from high above.
His name lives on in a Gearing-class destroyer named for him and commissioned
September 15, 1945, and now the proud historic naval ship of Jacksonville, Florida: USS
ORLECK DD 886.
Not only a mighty fighting machine, along the way she was a famous movie star as well,
having appeared with Tyrone Power in American Guerrilla in the Philippines in the 1950s
and as Tug Henry’s (Robert Mitchum’s) ship, in the award-winning 1983 ABC miniseries
The Winds of War. Those of age might recall the series, I Led Three lives that aired from
1953-56. I only mention the show to introduce the thought that USS ORLECK, over her
five decades plus of service could be said to have led three lives.
In her first life (as an active naval warship), she earned 18 battle stars, making her the
most decorated American warship since World War II. She was a Train Buster in Korea,
Top Gun in Vietnam, and, finally, the beloved TCG YUCETEPE D345 in Turkey.
Her second life (striving to become a celebrated historic naval museum) was a rougher
one and marked by many failures. Friendships between Turkish and American
supporters with high hopes, had brought her home to Orange, Texas, the city where she
had been built. There she was meant to become a museum. But the ship so well known
for being the premier Vietnam warship winning fourteen battle stars for her heroic
actions, came home to something painfully familiar to many Vietnam veterans: too little
appreciation. For ten years, her promise went unfulfilled by those controlling her with
the help of a lot of bad weather. Being made to leave Orange she was taken to Lake
Charles, LA for another decade where she sadly languished, tied up and rusting to a
riverbank, breaking many hearts as the days, weeks, months and years went by, her
mission unfulfilled.
She is now into her third life, one much better than the last when scrapping or sinking as
a reef loomed. Jacksonville needed a ship and ORLECK was there for the taking. The
nation’s third-largest Navy town chose ORLECK as its historic naval ship museum. She
was in terrible shape, but drydocking in Port Arthur and loving care in Jacksonville gave
the old girl another chance. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, she arrived in 2022.
Her sailors, who had held reunions around the country for thirty years, chose to hold
their final reunion aboard their ship in Jacksonville. They came with family and friends,
proud and happy to walk her decks again.
That gathering became not merely an ending, but a beginning. A new tradition was
born: The 11/11/11 event. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh
month, the guns of World War I fell silent. Now, at that same hour each Veterans Day,
ORLECK sailors, families, and friends knowing they are welcome aboard come. Each year
since, many have traveled from across the country to celebrate, remember, honor, and
walk once more the decks of the Mighty “O,” the Galloping Ghost of the Vietnam Coast.
The old girl’s third life looks set to be long and prosperous, like her first. After all she
has weathered, her epic tale looks destined to continue for a long time before the show
comes to an end. As for now, the story lives on at Pier One in Jacksonville where daily
work and play make her a welcomed tourist attraction as well.
Over the years, her sailors were video recorded at Orange, Lake Charles and during
reunions held for the men by the Destroyer USS ORLECK DD 886 Association. The
Jacksonville Museum was blessed by the work of “The National Society of The Colonial
Dames of America in the State of Florida” which began interviewing USS ORLECK sailors
and preserving them as a part of the Veterans Oral History Project at the Library of
Congress. The Veterans Museum has taken this worthy project a step
further, maintaining a recording studio to interview not just ORLECK sailors, but all
veterans which will become a part of our great American History preserved at the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
