USS Recruit

This 2/3 scale model of a destroyer escort, TDE-1, helped instruct as many as 50,000 naval recruits annually in basic naval procedure. Commissioned 27 July 1949, the Recruit was the Navy’s only commissioned ship never to reach water. It was the first of three similar structures built by the Navy following World War II and is the sole survivor of the three. Decommissioned 7 March 1967 when it could not be classified in a computerized Naval inventory, the USS Recruit nevertheless continued to train recruits, and was decommissioned in 1982 as a training guided missile frigate. Recruits gave the structure its affectionate nickname, USS Neversail.

San Diego, California · United States