USS Eldridge (DE-173)

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Career
USS Eldridge (DE-173) ca. 1944.
Ordered:	1942
Laid down:	22 February 1943
Launched:	25 July 1943
Commissioned:	27 August 1943
Decommissioned:	17 June 1946
Stricken:	26 March 1951
Fate:	Sold to Greece 15 January 1951, renamed HS Leon (D-54), stricken in 1991
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1240 tons
Length:	306 feet
Beam:	36 feet 8 inches
Draft:	8 feet 9 inches
Propulsion:
Speed:	21 knots
Range:
Complement:	186 officers and men
Armament:	3 × 3 in/50 (3 × 1) 4 × 1.1 in AA guns (1 × 4) 8 × 20 mm (8 × 1) 3 × 21 in. torpedo tubes (1 × 3) 8 x depth charge projectors 1 x hedgehog projector 2 x depth charge tracks
Motto:

USS Eldridge (DE-173), a Cannon-class destroyer escort, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for John Eldridge, Jr., a hero of the invasion of the Solomon Islands. Her keel was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newark, New Jersey. She was launched on 25 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. John Eldridge, Jr., widow of Lieutenant Commander Eldridge, and commissioned on 27 August 1943 with Lieutenant C. R. Hamilton, USNR, in command.

Despite theories to the contrary, Eldridge never called at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Between 4 January 1944 and 9 May 1945, Eldridge sailed on the vital task of escorting to the Mediterranean Sea men and materials to support Allied operations in North Africa and on into southern Europe. She made nine voyages to deliver convoys safely to Casablanca, Bizerte, and Oran.

Eldridge departed New York City on 28 May 1945 for service in the Pacific. En route to Saipan in July, she made contact with an underwater object and immediately attacked, but no results were observed. She arrived at Okinawa on 7 August for local escort and patrol, and with the end of hositilities a week later, continued to serve as escort on the Saipan-Ulithi-Okinawa routes until November. Eldridge was placed out of commission in reserve 17 June 1946. On 15 January 1951 she was transferred under the Mutual Defense Assistance program to Greece, with whom she served as HS Leon. She was believed to have been sold as scrap some time after the year 2000.

[edit] Conspiracy Theory

The USS Eldridge is part of many urban legends in which it is somehow involved in time or space travel, inspiring numerous theories, stories, and several films, see Philadelphia Experiment.