USS Bradford (DD-545) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was launched on 12 December 1942 and commissioned on 12 June 1943, the same day R. L. Morris took command.
On 18 August 1943 she left for Pearl Harbor. Barely a day after she arrived, she sailed on 25 August for Baker Island and joined the seizure and occupation of that island on 1 September. She then ran with carrier striking groups for the Tarawa raid on 18 September and the Wake Island raid on 5 and 6 October. In Task Group 52.3 she screened the covering force for the Gilbert Islands occupation, from 13 November to 8 December.
She next went to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides and joined Task Group 37.2. With that group she made strikes on 25 December 1943 and on 1 and 4 January 1944 against ships and harbor facilities at Kavieng, New Ireland, during the Bismarck Archipelago operations. From 29 January to 8 February she took part in occupying Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls in the Marshall Islands campaign. In the attack on Truk on 17 and 18 February, her torpedoes and 5-inch guns put several hits into an enemy cruiser and a destroyer. Raids on the Marianas followed on 21 and 22 February.
Serving in the Fast Carrier Task Force, then Task Force 58, she supported the occupation of New Guinea from 21 April to 1 June. Through the early summer she was in the invasion of Saipan from 11 to 24 June, the first Bonins raid on 15 and 16 June, the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 and 20 June, a second Bonins raid on 24 June, a third on 3 and 4 July, the assault on Guam from 12 July to 15 August, the Palau-Yap-Ulithi raid from 25 to 27 July, and a fourth Bonins raid on 4 and 5 August. In September she came home to the United States for a thorough overhaul.
She returned to Pearl Harbor in December 1944 and trained for fire-support work before joining the assault on Iwo Jima from 19 to 27 February 1945. In the Okinawa operation, 24 March to 25 July, she screened Task Group 52.1 for the landing and occupation and also served on radar picket. From 25 July to 10 August she took part in Third Fleet operations against Japan. From 10 to 25 August she worked as a fire-support and fighter-director ship while minesweepers cleared the East China Sea and the Ryukyus. After transport runs in the Far East she sailed for San Diego on 31 October 1945. On 11 July 1946 she was laid up, out of commission in reserve.
Bradford was recommissioned on 27 October 1950 and reported to the Pacific Fleet. Between 29 January 1951 and 2 November 1953 she finished three Far East tours, running 29 January to August 1951, 22 March to November 1952, and May to November 1953. On those tours she served in Task Force 77 and Task Force 95 off Korea, bombarding the shore and patrolling in support of United Nations ground forces. Three further cruises to the Far East followed. Between cruises she operated from San Diego on a long program of individual and type training. She was decommissioned on 28 September 1961.
She had come through the war. On 27 September 1962 she was transferred to the Hellenic Navy and served as Thyella (D28), a name meaning Storm. She was stricken in 1981 and scrapped. For her radar-picket duty in the Okinawa operation she received the Navy Unit Commendation. Her World War II service brought twelve battle stars, and her Korean War service brought six.