USS Robert I. Paine (DE-578)

History


Name:	USS Robert I. Paine
Namesake:	Pvt. Robert I. Paine, USMC
Ordered:	1942
Builder:	Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard
Laid down:	5 November 1943
Launched:	30 December 1943
Commissioned:	26 February 1944
Decommissioned:	21 November 1947
Reclassified:	DER-578, 18 March 1949 DE-578, 1 December 1954
Struck:	1 June 1968
Honors and awards:	1 battle star (World War II)
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 18 July 1969
General characteristics
Class and type:	Buckley-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,400 long tons (1,422 t) standard 1,740 long tons (1,768 t) full load
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11 m)
Draft:	9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) standard 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m) full load
Propulsion:	2 × boilers General Electric turbo-electric drive 12,000 shp (8.9 MW) 2 × solid manganese-bronze 3,600 lb (1,600 kg) 3-bladed propellers, 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) diameter, 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) pitch 2 × rudders 359 tons fuel oil
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range:	3,700 nmi (6,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers, 198 men
Armament:	3 × 3"/50 caliber guns 1 × quad 1.1"/75 caliber gun 8 × single 20 mm guns 1 × triple 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Robert I. Paine (DE/DER-578), a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, was named in honor of Marine Corps Private Robert I. Paine (1923-1942), who was killed in action during the attack on Tulagi on 7 August 1942. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.

Robert I. Paine was laid down at the Bethlehem Hingham Shipyards, Hingham, Massachusetts, on 5 November 1943; launched on 30 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. John Paine, mother of Private Paine; and commissioned on 26 February 1944, Lieutenant Commander Drayton Cochran in command.

Robert I. Paine completed shakedown off Bermuda in mid-April 1944 and joined the Atlantic Fleet on the 24th. She departed Brooklyn the same day to screen the carriers Ranger (CV-4) and Card (CVE-11) as they transported Army aircraft and Allied personnel to Casablanca. Arriving on 4 May, the destroyer escort patrolled off Casablanca until the 7th; then put to sea for the return voyage.

Detached on the 10th, she joined a hunter-killer group centered on the escort carrier Block Island (CVE-21) on the 15th. On the 18th, the group returned to Casablanca, replenished and sortied again on the 23rd for another anti-submarine sweep west of the Canary Islands and south of the Azores. On the 29th, Block Island was sunk and Barr (DE-576) was struck in the stern. Both were victims of torpedoes from U-549. The remaining escorts commenced rescue and search operations, with Robert I. Paine taking on 279 survivors from the CVE, then moving in to cover the crippled DE. Another escort, Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686), made contact with the U-boat, and assisted by Ahrens (DE-575), sank her. The search for survivors was called off the next day and the force retired to Casablanca. On 4 June, Robert I. Paine steamed for Gibraltar. Off Europa Point she rendezvoused with GUF-11 and, as a unit of TF 68, escorted the convoy to New York, arriving on the 14th.

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