_underway%2c_circa_in_the_late_1950s_(NH_91910).jpg) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Namesake | Edward Max Price |
| Builder | Consolidated Steel Corporation,Orange, Texas |
| Laid down | 24 August 1943 |
| Launched | 30 October 1943 |
| Commissioned | 12 January 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 30 June 1960 |
| Reclassified | DER-332, 21 October 1955 |
| Stricken | 1 August 1974 |
| Fate | Sold for scrapping 12 March 1975 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Edsall-classdestroyer escort |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 306 feet (93.27 m) |
| Beam | 36.58 feet (11.15 m) |
| Draft | 10.42 full load feet (3.18 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
| Range |
|
| Complement | 8 officers, 201 enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USSPrice (DE-332) was anEdsall-classdestroyer escort in service with theUnited States Navy from 1943 to 1947 and from 1956 to 1960. She was scrapped in 1975.
Edward Max Price was born on 20 June 1916 inRichmond, Virginia. He was appointed Midshipman on 16 July 1935, commissionedEnsign on 1 June 1939, and promoted toLieutenant (junior grade) on 1 November 1941. He served on boardUSS Lexington and was killed in action in theBattle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942.
Price was laid down by theConsolidated Steel Corp.,Orange, Texas, 24 August 1943; launched 30 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ray P. Reynolds; and commissioned 12 January 1944.
Aftershakedown offBermuda,Price departedNorfolk, Virginia, on convoy escort duty 23 March. On the night of 11 AprilGerman planes attacked in force, leavingUSS Holder (DE-401) dead in the water from atorpedo hit.Price shot down one plane, then escortedHolder, towed by rescue tugHMS Mindful, intoAlgiers, before continuing on toBizerte,Tunisia. She then escorted a return convoy to theUnited States, subsequently escorting two more convoys to Bizerte.
On 28 September, she was detached fromtask force TF 65, and with the rest of Escort Division 58, was assigned totask group TG 21.7 and duty escorting vital convoys across the stormy North Atlantic. By 29 May 1945 she had escorted five convoys across the Atlantic and back.
With the end ofEuropean hostilities she was transferred to the Pacific and arrivedPearl Harbor 27 July. On 31 August she got underway forEniwetok as plane guard and escort forUSS Kula Gulf. She subsequently put intoUlithi,Guam, andOkinawa. On 6 December she departed Guam forIwo Jima andChichi Jima where she established the military occupation of theBonin andVolcano Islands.
She departed Chichi Jima 9 January 1946 on a"Magic Carpet" run to the United States. Embarking veterans atIwo Jima,Guam, and Pearl Harbor, she carried them toSan Pedro, Los Angeles, then sailed for the East Coast. She reachedBoston, Massachusetts, 21 February, and in late March headed south toGreen Cove Springs, Florida. Decommissioned 16 May 1947, she remained there, a unit of theAtlantic Reserve Fleet until reactivated in 1955.
Converted to aradar picket escort on her reactivation, she was redesignated DER–332, 21 October 1955.Price recommissioned at New York 1 August 1956 and reported for duty withCortRon 18 atNewport, Rhode Island, 11 September. For the next three and a half years she patrolled theAtlantic Barrier from north ofNewfoundland, and south from theEnglish Channel to theAzores. This duty was interrupted by a schedule of training cruises to waters offCuba,Bermuda, and, theVirginia Capes and in December 1959 by SAR duty for PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower's flight home fromParis.
She was placed in commission in reserve atOrange, Texas, 1 April 1960 and was decommissioned there 30 June 1960. She remained in theAtlantic Reserve Fleet until struck from the Navy List on 1 August 1974. She was sold for scrapping 12 March 1975.
Price received one battle star for World War II service.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
