Ships
- USS Hopewell (DD-681) Captain from 9 June 1945
Richard Michael Hayes was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. On 9 June 1945 he became captain of the destroyer Hopewell, and he remained in command until 15 January 1947, the day the ship was decommissioned.
Hopewell (DD-681) was a Fletcher-class destroyer built by Bethlehem Steel at San Pedro, California. Launched on 2 May 1943, she was commissioned at Terminal Island on 30 September 1943 with Corbin Clark Schute in command. Through 1944 she joined the drive across the Central Pacific and into the Southwest Pacific, taking part in the Marshalls operation, landings along northern New Guinea, the assault on Morotai, and the Philippines campaign. Warner S. Rodimon relieved Schute on 25 September 1944 and was still in command for Leyte, Mindoro, and the Lingayen Gulf landings in January 1945.
On 14 February 1945, while clearing the way for minesweepers off Corregidor, Hopewell engaged a shore battery near Mariveles Harbor in Manila Bay. Four hits put her battery-control station out of action and caused casualties among the crew. She remained in the bay until 18 February, then went to Manus for repairs and reached San Francisco on 17 March. After further work on the West Coast she sailed for Pearl Harbor on 28 May 1945.
Hayes took command on 9 June 1945, during the ship's renewed training in Hawaiian waters. On 20 July Hopewell left for Eniwetok and Guam. On the day Japan surrendered she sailed from Guam with a refueling group supporting Task Force 38, then operated in Japanese waters with the occupation forces. On 21 October 1945 she departed for the United States by way of Pearl Harbor.
Hayes stayed with Hopewell through the first year of peace. His command closed on 15 January 1947, when the destroyer was decommissioned and laid up. The months under his orders covered the surrender, occupation duty, and the ship's passage into reserve.