USS Booth ( DE - 170 ) USS " Booth " ( DE - 170 ) was a built for the United States Navy during World War II . She served in the Atlantic Ocean and then the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys . She was laid down on 30 January 1943 at Newark , New Jersey , by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co . ; launched on 21 June 1943 ; named for Ensign Robert Sinclair Booth , who was assigned to the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor , the first Washington , DC serviceman to die in the war ; sponsored by Mrs . Annie L . Booth ; towed by ocean - going tug " " from her building yard to Norfolk , Virginia , via the Cape Cod Canal ( 24 – 26 June 1943 ) , completed at the Norfolk Navy Yard ; and commissioned there on 18 September 1943 , Lt . Comdr . Donald W . Todd in command . World War II Atlantic Ocean operations . After fitting out , " Booth " put to sea from Hampton Roads , Virginia , on 14 October 1943 for her shakedown . The destroyer escort returned to Norfolk from the Bermuda area on 13 November and entered the navy yard for post - shakedown availability . From 1 December to the 17th , she was at Washington , D . C . , taking part in experimental work at the Naval Research Laboratory at Bellevue and the Washington Navy Yard . During the latter part of the month , " Booth " helped to train prospective destroyer escort crews in the Hampton Roads area . At the beginning of 1944 , the warship ' s division , Escort Division ( CortDiv ) 15 , became a part of Task Force ( TF ) 62 . Over the next 16 months , " Booth " and her division mates completed eight round - trip voyages to the Mediterranean and back escorting UGS and GUS convoys , and she logged Gibraltar , Casablanca , Bizerte , Palermo , and Oran , as eastern termini . Though she investigated a number of sound contacts for possible enemy submarine s , her only verifiable scrape with the Germans came from the air when planes attacked Convoy UGS - 48 off Cape Bengut , Algeria , on the night of 1 August 1944 . The convoy ’ s anti - aircraft gunners repulsed the attack quickly , and none of the ships in the convoy suffered any damage . World War II Pacific Theatre operations . With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 , " Booth " began preparations for service in the Pacific theater . After a week of training near Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , the destroyer escort set course for the Panama Canal . She transited the isthmian waterway on 10 June and , after visiting San Diego and San Francisco , California , departed the latter port on 26 June . The warship escorted motor vessel MV Permanente to Pearl Harbor , arriving there on 2 July . " Booth " then trained in the Hawaiian Islands for almost two weeks before getting underway on the 15th to proceed Eniwetok , in the Marshall Islands , for the Marianas . She arrived at Saipan on 26 July . After making one round - trip convoy escort mission between Saipan and Iwo Jima with convoys SIW - 62 and IWS - 54 , " Booth " put to sea on 9 August for Ulithi Atoll , Caroline Islands . She reported in at Ulithi the following day and , on the 12th , embarked upon the first of two convoy runs to Okinawa , beginning with convoy UOK - 47 and returning with OKU - 20 . On the same day the surrender document was being executed on board in Tokyo Bay ( 2 September ) , " Booth " was getting underway at Okinawa to return to Ulithi with convoy OKU - 25 ( her Okinawa - bound leg having been with UOK - 52 ) from the second of those convoy screening missions . End - of - War Occupation Duties . During the autumn of 1945 , " Booth " assisted occupation forces in accepting the surrender of bypassed islands and in repatriating their garrisons . On 8 September 1945 , she set out from Ulithi with Lt . Kumura Fumio and Cpl . Kanichi Suzuki , representatives of the Imperial Japanese Army , embarked , to investigate Japanese installations and activities on Sorol Island , in the Western Carolines . Manning her 3 - inch and 40 - millimeter guns , " Booth " put ashore a landing party under Comdr . J . W . Buxton later that day , recovering the men a little over two hours later . The destroyer escort put the landing party ashore on Sorol again the following morning , recovering them soon thereafter and moving on to proceed toward Eauripik Island , arriving there the following day to put a force ashore to reconnoiter the island . After recovering her men shortly before noon , " Booth " arrived off Ifalik Island that afternoon . Her landing party visited that island during the day on 11 September , and then returned to Ulithi the following day ( 12 September ) . On 11 October , " Booth " put to sea with Lt . Col . Lyman D . Spurlock , USMC ( who was relieved by Maj . Robert J . J . Picardi on 30 October ) , and party , on a four - week assignment evacuating Japanese forces from Truk , Nomoi , and Puluwat atolls and preparing those places for the arrival of U . S . occupation forces . The warship arrived at Guam on 7 November but returned to sea the following day bound for the United States with 2 officers and 45 enlisted marines for transportation . Post - War decommissioning . Steaming via Pearl Harbor , San Diego , and the Panama Canal , the destroyer escort arrived in Green Cove Springs , Florida , on 28 January 1946 , where she was decommissioned on 14 June 1946 . Towed from Mayport , Florida , to Charleston , South Carolina , by the auxiliary ocean tug " " ( 10 – 11 April 1947 ) " Booth " was placed in " deferred disposal status pending possible transfer to a foreign government " on 7 July 1947 , and two days later was towed back to Mayport by " ATA - 209 " , where the former convoy escort was inactivated on 28 July 1947 . Booth Converted to the " Datu Kalantiaw " ( PS - 76 ) . " Booth ' s " " possible transfer to [ a ] foreign government " ultimately came to pass . Reconditioned by the Brewer Dry Dock Co . , Staten Island , New York , the ship was loaned to the Republic of the Philippines under the Military Assistance Program on 15 December 1967 . The Philippine Navy commissioned her on that day at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as BRP " Datu Kalantiaw " ( PS - 76 ) . On 30 June 1975 , while she was still operating on loan under a foreign flag , the destroyer escort was redesignated a frigate , FF - 170 . Subsequently , given the Philippine Navy ' s continuing need for the ship " in the interest of National Defense Requirements and in the furtherance of the Security Alliance between the [ Philippines ] and the United States , " the U . S . Navy disposed of her by Foreign Military Sale and " Booth " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 July 1978 . " Datu Kalantiaw " continued to serve under the Philippine flag until Typhoon Clara drove her aground on 21 September 1981 on the rocky northern shore of Calayan Island , in the northern Philippines . Ammunition ship , as she neared Subic Bay that day , slated for a period of upkeep , received orders to " get underway again that evening to coordinate rescue operations " at the scene of the tragedy . Consequently , " Mount Hood " , working in concert with Philippine Navy units " in a most adverse weather environment , " retrieved 49 bodies in two days of operations , and ultimately sailed for Manila to turn them over to Philippine authorities , rescuers no longer hearing tapping from inside the ship that lay on her beam ends where Clara had cast her . Soon thereafter , Rear Admiral Simeon Alejandro , Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy , " made an emotional address to the officers and men of Mount Hood upon the ship ' s arrival on Manila , " the auxiliary ' s historian records , " thanking each man for his part in the mission and offering the gratitude of the Philippine nation to the Captain and crew . " One contemporary account called the loss of " Datu Kalantiaw " " one of the worst disasters in the history of the Philippine Navy , " 79 of the 97 - man crew perishing . External links . 0