Ships
- USS John D. Ford (DD-228) Captain, 27 June 1945 to 2 November 1945
Lieutenant Gilbert Ira Patterson of the United States Naval Reserve commanded the destroyer John D. Ford from 27 June 1945 until 2 November 1945. He held the rank of lieutenant while he was her captain. The ship was decommissioned on 2 November 1945, and his command ended that day.
John D. Ford (DD-228) was a Clemson-class destroyer built by William Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia. Her keel was laid on 11 November 1919, she was launched on 2 September 1920, and she was commissioned on 30 December 1920. She carried the name of Rear Admiral John Donaldson Ford, an engineer officer whose service ran from the Civil War through the Spanish-American War. After trials off New England and training in the Caribbean, she left Newport in June 1922 for permanent duty with the Asiatic Fleet, and the China station remained her home through the years before the Second World War.
She was still an Asiatic Fleet destroyer when the Pacific war began. Jacob Elliott Cooper was her captain from April 1941 through the campaign in the Netherlands East Indies. In that period the ship took part in the night attack off Balikpapan and received a Presidential Unit Citation for the Java campaign of early 1942. Norman Ernest Smith, who relieved Cooper in July 1942, had her when she shifted to the Atlantic Fleet in May 1943. John Sim Slaughter commanded from October 1943 to May 1944, including duty in early 1944 with a hunter-killer group formed around the escort carrier Guadalcanal. Thomas Alexander Watkins then had her on Atlantic convoy escort from 21 May 1944 until he turned the ship over to Patterson.
Patterson’s four months followed the surrender of Germany. John D. Ford was by then a twenty-five-year-old flush-deck destroyer whose wartime record stood at four battle stars, earned across her Pacific fighting and her later Atlantic escort work. Japan surrendered in August 1945 while he was still captain. He remained in command until the decommissioning on 2 November 1945. The Navy struck her from the register on 16 November 1945 and sold her for scrap on 30 September 1947.