Is anybody old enough to remember these ships?

Question:

Is anybody old enough to remember these ships?

Does anybody remember the USS Minneaplis or the USS Pillsbury? I found some old pictures of my great uncles with him wearing a hat with one of these names and another with a name on a ship that he was on. My dad can't tell me anything about him as his uncle died probably in the early 1950s. His name was Roy McCoy if anybody might know. I can't really find anything on those ancestry sites as they turn up so many names plus everything costs now. Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Two ships in the United States Navy have been named USS Pillsbury for John E. Pillsbury.

The first Pillsbury (DD-227) was a Clemson-class destroyer, commissioned in 1920 and sunk in enemy action in March of 1942.
The second Pillsbury (DE-133) was a Edsall-class destroyer escort, commissioned in 1943 and decommissioned in 1960.

DD means that it was a destroyer; DE means that it was a destroyer escort. Escorts are smaller than destroyers. Destroyers would have had 5 inch guns whereas DEs has 3 inch guns. Guns mentioned are the main battery, the largest guns on the ship, there would have been several smaller guns.

Guns are usually designated as 5 inch 38, or 3 inch 50, and you can determine the barrel length by multipling 5x38 or 3x50

USS Minneapolis would have been a Cruiser and probably been in WWII

Cruisers are smaller than battle ships and would have either 6 inch guns or 8 inch guns

If you need records and histories of these ships, you can contact National Archives in College Park MD. The easiest to get would be ship's histories, but you can ask for ship's diaries, which will come either in printed form or on microfilm and any of that will cost you a fortune since you do not have absolute dates, you will have to have all the diaries to find any kin and you will have to have a ship's history for every year it was in commission.

You can probably find a history of all of them on the net by just plugging the ship's names into Google.