USS SLATER RETURNS

TO UNITED STATES

 The AETOS was awaiting disposal in Souda Bay, Crete, when it was granted a new lease on life by the members of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association (DESA). In 1993, the Board of Directors of DESA voted for and established a new organization, the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum. This institution was incorporated as a not-for-profit educational corporation that anyone with an interest in preserving destroyer escort history could join. This was the group charged with maintaining and operating a preserved destroyer escort should one be found. Several DESA Board members took on roles in the new organization.

The then 15,000 members of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association raised $290,000 to rescue the USS SLATER and bring it home from Greece. The Hellenic Navy deeded the ship to DESA and the group raised the funds necessary to insure the ship and tow it to New York. The rusty hulk of a ship started its journey from the port of Crete and arrived safely in New York Harbor with the assistance of a Ukrainian ocean going tug. The SLATER was berthed adjacent to the Aircraft Carrier USS INTREPID at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. In 1993 the USS SLATER was towed into New York Harbor after a perilous transit across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1997, after a brief stay of 4 years in New York City, the SLATER transferred up the river to its permanent home in Albany, New York.