USS Holder (DD-819) in the early 1970s
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History | |
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United States | |
Name: | USS Holder |
Namesake: | Randolph M. Holder |
Builder: | Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas |
Laid down: | 23 April 1945 |
Launched: | 25 August 1945 |
Commissioned: | 18 May 1946 |
Decommissioned: | 1 October 1976 |
Reclassified: |
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Struck: | 1 October 1976 |
Fate: | Transferred to Ecuador, 23 February 1977 |
History | |
Ecuador | |
Name: | BAE Presidente Eloy Alfaro |
Namesake: | Eloy Alfaro |
Acquired: | 23 February 1977 |
Struck: | 1991 |
Fate: | Broken up for scrap, 1991 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Gearing-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 3,460 long tons (3,516 t) full |
Length: | 390 ft 6 in (119.02 m) |
Beam: | 40 ft 10 in (12.45 m) |
Draft: | 14 ft 4 in (4.37 m) |
Propulsion: | Geared turbines, 2 shafts, 60,000 shp (45 MW) |
Speed: | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
Range: | 4,500 nmi (8,300 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
Complement: | 336 |
Armament: |
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USS Holder (DD/DDE-819) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, the second Navy ship named for Lieutenant (jg) Randolph Mitchell Holder, a Navy pilot who was killed during the Battle of Midway.
Holder was launched by Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Texas, on 25 August 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Annette Holder, mother of Lieutenant (j.g.) Holder; and commissioned on 18 May 1946 at Orange, Texas, Comdr. B. K. Atkins in command.
Holder conducted her shakedown training in the Caribbean and returned to Norfolk, Virginia on 28 August 1946. After a period of training exercises along the coast she sailed for the Mediterranean on 23 October. During the subsequent operations with the 6th Fleet in this area, Holder visited Egypt and Saudi Arabia, arriving Newport on 22 March 1947. She then took part in anti-submarine training exercises out of Newport and in the Caribbean.
The destroyer continued this pattern of operations for the years that followed. In June–July 1949 Holder took part in a Midshipman training cruise to northern Europe and upon her return moved her home port from Newport to Norfolk. Her classification was changed to DDE-819 on 4 March 1950, but she continued to alternate cruises to Europe and the Mediterranean with periods of training and upkeep out of Norfolk and the Caribbean. When the Suez Crisis flared in the Middle East over Egypt's seizure of the Suez Canal in 1956, Holder steamed to join the 6th Fleet in operations. Again in 1958 Holder sailed to the Mediterranean in March and in July took part in the landings at Beirut, Lebanon.