USS Quick (DD-490), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for John Henry Quick, who received the Medal of Honor “for gallantry in action” in signalling the gunfire support vessel Dolphin (PG-24) while exposed to heavy enemy fire at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 14 June 1898.

Quick (DD-490) was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Kearny, New Jersey on 3 November 1941. It was completed and launched 3 May 1942; sponsored by Mrs. William T. Roy, niece of Sgt. Major Quick. She was commissioned 3 July 1942 with Lt. Cmdr. R. B. Nickerson in command.

Initial Deployment
Following her initial shakedown off the coast of New England and the Maritime Provinces, Quick departed New York, 6 September 1942, for the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Assigned to escort work, she accompanied US Army transports and merchantmen as they plied the Gulf and West Indian shipping lanes: lanes which in preceding months had suffered the greatest losses to U-boat activities in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.


Operation Torch
In October, Quick left the Gulf and steamed to Norfolk, Virginia where she joined TF 34 and, on 23 October and steamed east. Just before midnight, 7 November, she arrived off the coast of Safi, Morocco, and took up station in the transport area for the Southern Attack Group of Operation TORCH the invasion of North Africa. During the landings the following day, she provided gunfire support, then resumed anti-aircraft and anti-submarine duties. On 14 November she shifted to Casablanca and two days later assisted in sinking U-173. On the 17th she got underway for the United States and at the end of the month anchored in New York harbor. She resumed escort work and for the next six months guarded coastal and trans-Atlantic convoys.


Operation Husky
On 8 June 1943, Quick departed the east coast with TF 65, bound for North Africa. Arriving at Mers-el-Kebir on the 22 June, she joined TF 85 and on 5 July sailed for Sicily and Operation HUSKY. From the 10th through the 13th, she cruised off Seoglitti and along the Camerina plain, providing fire support for the U.S. 7th Army's assault troops. She then returned to escort work in the North Atlantic until May 1944, and on Mediterranean runs until the end of the war in Europe.