USS Otterstetter

History
United States
Namesake	Carl William Otterstetter
Builder	Brown Shipbuilding Houston, Texas
Laid down	9 November 1942
Launched	19 January 1943
Commissioned	6 August 1943
Decommissioned	20 June 1960
Stricken	1 August 1974
Fate	Sunk as a target off Puerto Rico 15 February 1976
General characteristics
Class and type	Edsall-class destroyer escort
Displacement	1,253 tons standard 1,590 tons full load
Length	306 feet (93.27 m)
Beam	36.58 feet (11.15 m)
Draft	10.42 full load feet (3.18 m)
Propulsion	4 FM diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6,000 shp (4.5 MW), 2 screws
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h)
Range	9,100 nmi. at 12 knots (17,000 km at 22 km/h)
Complement	8 officers, 201 enlisted
Armament	3 × single 3 in (76 mm)/50 guns 1 × twin 40 mm AA guns 8 × single 20 mm AA guns 1 × triple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 8 × depth charge projectors 1 × depth charge projector (hedgehog) 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Otterstetter (DE-244) was an

.

Namesake

Carl William Otterstetter was born on 11 January 1920 at

.

Construction and commissioning

Otterstetter was laid down 9 November 1942 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas; launched 19 January 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Miles P. Refo, Jr.; commissioned 6 August 1943.

World War II North Atlantic operations

Otterstetter sailed on her

. She made a convoy escort voyage to Casablanca in February 1944.

On 24 May Otterstetter made the first of three voyages to

.

Transfer to the Pacific Fleet

On 16 July 1945 Otterstetter sailed for Pearl Harbor via Guantánamo Bay, Panama Canal, and San Diego, California. After a brief training in Hawaiian waters, she proceeded to Saipan, arriving 29 August. The following day she sailed for Iwo Jima, arriving on 1 September 1945.

Otterstetter remained at

. She arrived at Tokyo on the last day of the year 1945.

On 4 January 1946 Otterstetter got underway for

, 15 May.

Otterstetter underwent a pre-inactivation overhaul and departed for

Atlantic Reserve Fleet

.

Post-War Conversion to Radar Picket Ship

On 1 June 1951, Charleston Naval Shipyard commenced the dual procedure of reactivating Otterstetter and converting her from a destroyer escort to a radar picket destroyer escort.

Reclassified DER-244 in December 1951, Otterstetter recommissioned at Charleston Naval Shipyard 6 June 1952. On 19 July 1952 Otterstetter reported to Commander Destroyer Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, as a unit of Escort Squadron Sixteen.

After a shakedown cruise to Guantánamo Bay she sailed 4 December for her first picket in the contiguous radar coverage of the Atlantic Coast, searching for and reporting aircraft in her sectors of responsibility. She continued these duties for the next several years.

Final Decommissioning

Otterstetter was decommissioned 20 June 1960 and was berthed at the reserve fleet on the Sabine River in Texas. On 15 February 1976 she was sunk as a target off Puerto Rico.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
• NavSource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive - USS Otterstetter (DE-244)