USS Calcaterra ( DE - 390 ) USS " Calcaterra " ( DE - 390 ) was an built for the U . S . Navy during World War II . She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys . Post - war she was called up again for duty , this time as a radar picket ship . She was named in honor of Motor Machinist ' s Mate First Class Herbert A . Calcaterra who received the Silver Star posthumously . She was launched 18 August 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding Co . , Houston , Texas ; sponsored by Mrs . G . M . Stites ; commissioned 17 November 1943 , Commander H J . Wuensch , USCG , in command ; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet . World War II North Atlantic operations . 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 . Transfer to the Pacific Fleet . On 9 July 1946 " 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 . Final decommissioning . " 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 that got all the credit . 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 .