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. Namesake Herbert A. Calcaterra was born on 7 April 1920 in Escalon, California. He enlisted in the Navy on 14 December 1939. Motor Machinist's Mate First Class Calcaterra was commended 7 July 1942 for his performance as a member of the crew of the , and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry as a member of a 3" gun crew until fatally wounded during an action against an armed enemy patrol ship on 4 September 1942. Construction and commissioning She was launched 18 August 1943 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Texas; sponsored by Mrs. G. M. Stites; commissioned 17 November 1943 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 1945 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