USS Cavallaro (DE-712/APD-128) was a Crosley-class high speed transport of the United States Navy.

History
United States
NameUSS Cavallaro
NamesakeSalvatore John Cavallaro
Ordered1942
BuilderDefoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Laid down28 March 1944
Launched15 June 1944
Commissioned13 March 1945
Decommissioned17 May 1946
Recommissioned4 September 1953
Decommissioned15 October 1959
Stricken15 November 1974
FateTransferred to South Korea, 15 October 1959
South Korea
NameROKS Kyung-Nam (APD-81)
Acquired15 October 1959
Decommissioned29 December 2000
FateSunk as a target, 2003
General characteristics
Class and typeCrosley-class high speed transport
Displacement1,450 long tons (1,473 t)
Length306 ft (93 m)
Beam36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion
Speed23 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)
Boats & landing
craft carried
4 × LCVPs
Troops162 troops
Complement204 (12 officers, 192 enlisted)
Armament

Namesake

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Salvatore John Cavallaro was born on 6 September 1920 in New York City. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 6 January 1942, and was commissioned Ensign on 28 January 1943. After training on landing craft, he joined the transport USS Lyon. In the Allied invasion of Sicily, he was assigned to guide the landing of the waves of assault boats, and with skill and courage, under repeated strafing and bombing attacks, carried on throughout the night and early daylight hours of 10 July 1943. Assigned similar duty in the invasion of Salerno Gulf on 9 September 1943, he was killed in action when his LCT was struck by shellfire. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his service at Sicily.

Construction and commissioning

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Cavallaro was laid down by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan, as a Rudderow-class destroyer escort with the hull number DE-712. She was launched on 15 June 1944, sponsored by Mrs. A. Cavallaro. A few weeks after launching, on 17 July 1944, it was decided that Cavallaro would be completed as a Crosley-class high speed transport, with the designation APD-128. She was commissioned on 13 March 1945.

Service history

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1945–1946

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Arriving for training at Pearl Harbor on 30 May 1945, Cavallaro sailed on 13 June for convoy escort duty out of Ulithi to the Philippines and Okinawa until 20 September, when she arrived at Sasebo, Japan. She carried men between Japanese ports, and on 12 October departed Tokyo Bay bound for San Francisco, California. After operating along the west coast, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at San Diego, California, on 17 May 1946.

1953–1959

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Cavallaro was recommissioned on 4 September 1953, and after intensive training, sailed for Japan on 12 March 1954. She served as primary control ship in several large amphibious exercises during this tour of duty in the Far East, and transported Underwater Demolition Teams in day and night practice reconnaissance missions. In the fall of 1954, she was stationed at Hai Phong and Saigon, Vietnam, as headquarters for those supervising the debarkation of refugees from Communist North Vietnam carried south by the U.S. Navy in "Operation Passage to Freedom". She returned to San Diego on 23 November.

From March 1955, Cavallaro was homeported at Long Beach, California, conducting operations along the California coast and exercising with Marines. Between 12 January 1956 and 4 October, she served again in the Far East, joining in a re-enactment of the assault on Iwo Jima made for training purposes, and visiting ports in Japan and the Philippines, as well as Hong Kong. Her final cruise to the Orient, between 10 February 1959 and 23 May, found her exercising with both Korean and American Marines. Cavallaro returned to Long Beach to prepare for transfer to the Republic of Korea, and was decommissioned and transferred 15 October 1959.

ROKS Kyung-Nam (APD-81)

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She served for forty years in the Republic of Korea Navy as ROKS Kyung-Nam (APD-81). She was decommissioned on 29 December 2000, and sunk as a target in March or April 2003.

References

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

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