Hellenic Navy AETOS/ USS SLATER raised Greek flag for Ochi Day
On Oxi Day, 28 October 2021, the USS SLATER/Destroyer Escort Historical Museum paid homage to the forty years that USS SLATER served the Greek Navy at A/T AETOS, raising the Greek flag once again on the ship
Oxi Day is celebrated throughout Greece, Cyprus and the Greek communities around the world on October 28 each year. The day commemorates the rejection by Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas of the ultimatum made by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on October 28, 1940 to occupy Greece. The Greek flag will fly over A/T AETOS once again.
Of the Greek resistance that followed when they the Italians invaded Greece, Winston Churchill said "...until now we would say that the Greeks fight like heroes. From now on we will say that heroes fight like Greeks."
Thank you to Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and Assemblyman Phil Steck for attending. And special thanks to Program Manager Shanna Schuster and Michael Koutsourades for organizing the event, as well as to all of the participants, and all of our Greek friends and supporters.
The USS SLATER DE-766 is a CANNON class destroyer escort that served in the United States Navy during World War II. One of 563 similar ships constructed between 1943 and 1945, the SLATER is the last destroyer escort remaining afloat in the United States today.
The SLATER was transferred to Greece on 1 March 1951 as AETOS 01 under the Military Defense Assistance Program. Under this program, it was expected that if Communist forces invaded Western Europe, escort vessels given to European NATO nations would be available to assist in convoy escort and antisubmarine warfare. The ship began Greek service in July 1951.
- Published in Greece
