USS Carpellotti (APD-136)

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Career

Ordered:	1942
Laid down:	31 October 1944
Launched:	10 March 1945
Commissioned:	30 July 1945
Decommissioned:	21 April 1958
Struck:	1 December 1959
Fate:	Scrapped, 1966
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,450 tons
Length:	306 ft. (93 m) overall
Beam:	36 ft. 10 in. (11.2 m)
Draft:	13 ft. 6 in. (4.1 m)
Propulsion:	2 boilers, General Electric Turbo-electric drive 2 solid manganese-bronze 3600 lb 3-bladed propellers, 8.5 ft. diameter, 7 ft. 7 inch pitch 12,000 hp (8.9 MW) 2 rudders
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h)
Range:	359 tons oil 3,700 nmi. at 15 knots 6,000 nmi. at 12 knots
Complement:	204 (12 officers, 192 enlisted)
Troop Capacity:	12 officers, 150 enlisted
Boats:	4 LCVP landing craft
Armament:	1 × 5 in (127 mm) / 38 cal., 6 × 40 mm (3×2), 6 × 20 mm guns; 2 depth charge tracks

USS Carpellotti (APD-136) was a Crosley-class high-speed transport, the second ship of the United States Navy to be assigned the name Carpellotti, after Marine Private First Class Louis J. Carpellotti (1918–1942), who was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his actions on Tulagi, Solomon Islands, during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Carpellotti was originally designated DE-720, a Rudderow-class destroyer escort, Carpellotti was re-designated as APD-136, a fast transport, on 17 July 1944, even before being laid down on 31 October 1944 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, in Bay City, Michigan. She was launched on 10 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. S. Carpellotti. Builders trials before her pre-commissioning cruise were done in Lake Huron.

After completion, Carpellotti sailed from the builder's yard at Bay City to Chicago, Illinois. From there, they went through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and down the Chicago River to Joliet, Illinois, where pontoons were attached to the ship so it could be pushed down the Des Plaines River, Illinois River, and Mississippi River as part of a barge train. After arriving at the Todd Johnson Shipyard in Algiers, Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the rest of the crew reported aboard, and Carpellotti was commissioned at New Orleans on 30 July 1945, with Lieutenant Commander J. V. Brown, USNR, in command.

Completed too late for active participation in World War II, Carpellotti remained on active duty with the Atlantic Fleet, based in Norfolk, Virginia. Following a midshipman's cruise to English and French ports from 24 June through 2 August 1947, she was immobilized with a skeleton crew at Yorktown, Va., until 3 February 1948.

Resuming active service, Carpellotti operated from Norfolk on amphibious assault exercises along the east coast and in the Caribbean. In the summer, she made midshipman cruises to European ports, and in 1948 made a good-will tour to the Persian Gulf. She also took part in North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercises: in 1952 in the first NATO amphibious operation, "Main brace"; and in 1955 and 1957 during her tours with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.

Carpellotti was placed out of commission in reserve at Norfolk on 21 April 1958, and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Carpellotti was stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on 1 December 1959. She was sold 20 June 1960, for $141,474 to Diamond Manufacturing Co., Savannah, Ga., and used in the construction of the Norfolk-Portsmouth, Va. bridge and tunnel project. In 1966, she was sold by Diamond Manufacturing to Boston Metals Co., Baltimore, Md., for scrapping.