Ships
- USS Wren (DD-568) Captain from 31 August 1945
Clayton Ross was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy when he became captain of USS Wren (DD-568) on 31 August 1945. From that day the destroyer was his ship, and the officers and crew took their orders from him as commanding officer.
Wren was a Fletcher-class destroyer, one of the fast fleet destroyers built for the Pacific war. Ships of the class screened aircraft carriers, fought submarines with depth charges, and carried 5-inch guns, torpedoes, and automatic antiaircraft cannon. Ross took her at the close of that long building program, with a wartime crew still working the routines of a front-line destroyer.
His command began in the short interval after Japan announced acceptance of the Allied terms in mid-August and before the formal surrender was signed on 2 September 1945 in Tokyo Bay. On the last day of August he was already responsible for Wren, and his first days aboard fell while the Pacific Fleet turned to occupation duty.
A destroyer captain's work continued in full once the guns fell quiet. Boilers and turbines had to be kept ready, watches stood, and a crew of about three hundred held to gunnery drill, damage control, and shiphandling. Wren remained with the forces in the western Pacific as mines were swept, ports opened, and men and supplies were moved. Ross's charge was to keep the ship fit for those tasks and to handle her safely at sea.
The same ship's company in 1945 included Edwin Anderson McDonald. Through the months that followed the surrender, Lieutenant Commander Clayton Ross served as captain of Wren, responsible for her people and for the careful seamanship the occupation fleet required.