USS Calcaterra

Herbert A. Calcaterra was born on 7 April 1920 in Escalon, California. He enlisted in the Navy on 14 December 1939. Motor Machinist's Mate First Class Calcaterra was commended 7 July 1942 for his performance as a member of the crew of the USS Pompano, and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry as a member of a 3" gun crew until fatally wounded during an action against an armed enemy patrol ship on 4 September 1942.

She was launched 18 August 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas; sponsored by Mrs. G. M. Stites; commissioned 17 November 1943 and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.

Assigned to the vital duty of escorting convoys between the United States and the Mediterranean, Calcaterra made eight round trips between 13 February 1944 and 10 June 1945. The ships she guarded provided the men and equipment which insured the success of the invasions of Italy and southern France. Twice the escort vessel met the challenge of enemy opposition when she depth charged a suspected submarine contact and fired on two aircraft. Her alert action helped prevent damage or loss to the ships under convoy.

On 9 July 1945 Calcaterra headed for the Pacific to tackle a new job, but the war ended shortly before her arrival at Pearl Harbor. She lifted passengers back to the west coast, then sailed on to the Atlantic. Calcaterra was placed out of commission in reserve at Green Cove Springs, Florida on 1 May 1946.

Reclassified DER-390 on 28 October 1954, Calcaterra was converted to a radar picket ship at Norfolk, Virginia, and recommissioned on 12 September 1955. Based on Newport, Rhode Island, the radar picket ship almost continuously served in the violent weather of the North Atlantic once lost all life lines and ready service box's, 5" gun mount was lifted of her gimbals that a crane had to be used to remount it, to maintain her link in the extension of the Distant Early Warning system. Except for exercises with the fleet in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and a cruise to Europe Ship would go out on picket 30 days than 2 weeks in the states (For the married men,) out for 30 days picket than 2 weeks in Europe ended up once in Antwerp Belgium(August–October 1958), Calcaterra continued this duty through 1960.

Calcaterra was struck from the Navy list on 2 July 1973, sold on 14 May 1974, and broken up for scrap.

The pickets north of Cuba, Dog Rocks, were 30 days out, two days in Key West or Miami, 30 days out then 28 days in Newport, year after year. On many pickets the ship was used as a halfway point for people escaping from Cuba. They were fed then picked up by the Coast Guard. When the ship hit heavy seas headed south for a picket the forward 3-inch gun was ripped off the deck and thrown up onto the 01 level and the forward spaces were flooded. The gun was lashed down, the deck covered with beams and canvas, the water pumped out and the ship proceeded south. About a month later the ship was repaired at a private yard in Boston.

During the years 1965 - 1966 and 1967 - 1968 Calcaterra was assigned to Operation Deep Freeze Task Force 43. Operating out of Dunedin, New Zealand Calcaterra regularly sailed into the Southern Ocean, 60 degrees South, 162 degrees East and performed weather picket duties. Calcaterra circumnavigated the world twice during these deployments.

After the Pueblo incident Calcaterra was refitted as a communications ferret and served in that capacity for several years.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• NavSource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive - USS Calcaterra (DE 390)