USS Eisele (DE-34)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Eisele.

USS Eisele (DE-34) was an Evarts-class short-hull destroyer escort in the service of the United States Navy.

USS Eisele after her launch at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 29 June 1943
History
United States
Name	USS Eisele
Builder	Mare Island Navy Yard
Laid down	23 January 1943
Launched	29 June 1943
Commissioned	18 October 1943
Decommissioned	16 November 1945
Stricken	28 November 1945
Honors and awards	2 battle stars (World War II)
Fate	Sold for scrapping, 29 January 1948
General characteristics
Type	Evarts-class destroyer escort
Displacement	1,140 long tons (1,158 t)
Length	289 ft 5 in (88.21 m)
Beam	35 ft 1 in (10.69 m)
Draft	8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
Propulsion	4 × General Motors Model 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	4,150 nmi (7,690 km)
Complement	156
Armament	3 × single 3"/50 Mk.22 dual-purpose guns 1 × Hedgehog Projector Mk.10 8 × Mk.6 depth charge projectors 2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks

Eisele was launched on 29 June 1943 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Solano County, California, as BDE-34, by Mrs. George A. Eisele, mother of Seaman Second Class Eisele. Intended for the British under the Lend-Lease agreement, she was retained by the U.S. Navy and assigned the name Eisele; and commissioned on 18 October 1943.

Namesake

An exhibit of George Eisele's awards and the bottle used to christen USS Eisele at Campbell County Rockpile Museum in Gillette, Wyoming

George Raymond "Spud" Eisele was born on 15 May 1923 in Gillette, Wyoming. He was a United States Naval Reserve sailor who was killed in action on 12 November 1942 during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Eisele was manning a gunnery station aboard the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco when a Japanese torpedo plane crashed into his location. Eisele was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for "courageously refusing to abandon his gun in the face of an on-rushing Japanese torpedo plane."

Service history

Eisele sailed from San Francisco on 11 December 1943 and after touching at Pearl Harbor and Funafuti, arrived in the Gilberts on 5 January 1944. She patrolled off Tarawa and guarded convoys between the Gilberts and Marshalls, returning to Pearl Harbor on 19 May. In June she departed for Eniwetok and screened transports to Guam for support landings on 27 July. She continued to serve in the occupation of the Marianas on screen, convoy escort, and air-sea rescue duty.

Returning to Pearl Harbor on 28 August 1944, Eisele conducted training exercises with submarines until October when she sailed for Eniwetok. There she screened fast tanker convoys safely past the rest of the Carolines, still Japanese held, to Palau and on to the Philippines. In March 1945 Eisele arrived at Ulithi, the staging point for the Okinawa operation, and sailed on the 21st screening escort carriers providing the air cover to capture Okinawa. Except for escorting a convoy to Saipan, Eisele remained with the CVEs off Okinawa fighting off constant air attack.

Eisele was homeward bound on 17 June, and was decommissioned at Seattle on 16 November 1945. She was sold on 29 January 1948.

Awards

	American Campaign Medal
	Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal (with two service stars)
	World War II Victory Medal

References

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

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Eisele at NavSource Naval History