High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Norris (DD-859) was one of 98 Gearing-class destroyers in the United States Navy during the end of World War II. Norris was active from 9 June 1945 to 4 December 1970. Although built too late to see action during the war, the ship served in the Pacific, Atlantic, Asiatic, and Mediterranean areas. She was named for Major Benjamin White Norris, USMCR, who was killed in action at the Battle of Midway and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.