Ship's Histories Section
Navy Department

HISTORY OF THE USS ELDRIDGE

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Built by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Port Newark, New Jersey, destroyer escort Eldridge was launched on July 25, 1943, with Mrs, John Eldridge, Jr., widow of Lieutenant Commander John Eldridge, Jr. USN, in whose honor the ship was named, acting as sponsor. Lieutenant Commander Eldridge, a naval aviator, lost his life in a dive bombing operation during the Solomons Campaign for which he was posthuminously awarded the Navy Cross.

Wasting no time in getting to the task at hand, USS Eldridge, during the month of September, combined escort duty with shakedown operations in the Bermuda, British West Indies area. She continued in this duty until December 28, when she took time out for a three day training period in the vicinity of Block Island. From the Block Island area she proceeded down the coast to Hampton Roads, Virginia, there to await her first overseas escort assignment. After brief escort and patrol missions which took her into the Chesapeake Bay during the first week of January 1944, the ship headed out across the Atlantic as one of the escort units to a large convoy of merchant ships.

January 20, found the Eldridge and her brood of merchantmen entering the Strait of Gibralter, standing out of the Straits a day later and mooring at Casablanca, French Morocco, on the 23rd. But there was little rest for the eager Eldridge and by the 26th she was underway again sheparding another convoy to the Harbor of Horta, Payal Island, Azores, where she anchored on the afternoon of the 30th.

On the following day Eldridge escorted the SS John Clarke to a rendezvous in the Atlantic and then continued on with another convoy to New York. Upon arrival, February 15, the now sea-seasoned Eldridge was granted a period of availability until the 26th, during which time she underwent repairs and ironed out some of the "kinks" developed during her first overseas voyage. At the expiration of the rest and repair period she engaged in refresher training exercises with friendly submarines for a few days and then got underway for another escort assignment to Casablanca. After the second Atlantic round trip the ship came into New York Harbor again for repairs to the sound gear, followed by another training period.

On April 21, 1944, Lieutenant James M. Manire, USNR, relieved Lieutenant William K. Van Allen, USNR, as Executive Officer and Lieutenant Van Allen relieved Lieutenant Commander Charles R. Hamilton, USNR, as Commanding Officer.