U.S.S. Chambers
DER-391
1955
(NNCAD 2367b)
- Class: Edsall - 34 converted destroyer escort radar pickets of 1951-58
- Displacement: 1,590 tons standard / 1,850 tons full load
- Dimensions: 306' (oa) x 36'10" x 11'
- Machinery: 4 Fairbanks-Morse Diesels; 2 shafts; 6,000 BHP
- Speed: 21 knots
- Guns: 2-3"/50 (2x1); 4-20mm (2x2)
- ASW weapons: 1 trainable Hedgehog; 2 torpedo rack side launchers; 1 DC rack
- Complement: 150
- Builder: Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas
- Keel Laid: 28 May 1943
- Launched: 17 Aug 1943
- Commissioned: 22 Nov 1943 / 11 Jun 1952 (USCG) / 1 Jun 1955
- Decommissioned: 22 Apr 1946 / 30 Jul 1954 (USCG) / 20 Jun 1960
- Notes: Served as convoy escort in the Atlantic during 1944-45. Sent to Pacific in Jul 1945, she arrived too late for combat, but served to transport servicemen home. Loaned to Coast Guard as WDE-491 during 1952-54, serving on Atlantic weather patrols. Starting in late 1954, she was converted to a radar picket ship to serve in the Atlantic Barrier Patrol, the extension of the DEW (Distant Early Warning) line of radar stations guarding against potential Soviet attack. The superstructure was rebuilt with aluminum and a tripod mast added to support ECM and TACAN, with SPS-8 height finder radar on the after deckhouse, along with other changes. Her radar picket mission ended in 1960, although others of her class continued to 1965, and several went on to serve off Vietnam.
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