USS Eldridge (DE-173)

USS Eldridge (DE-173) is a Cannon-class destroyer escort that served in the United States Navy.

Construction

Her keel was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newark, New Jersey, her hull was launched on 25 July 1943,and commissioned on 27 August 1943

Service history

After commissioned, Between January 1944, and May, 1945, Eldridge sailed on the vital task of escorting to the Mediterranean Sea men and materials to support Allied operations in North Africa and on into southern Europe. It made nine voyages to deliver convoys safely to Casablanca, Bizerte, and Oran.

Eldridge departed New York City on 28 May 1945 for service in the Pacific. En route to Saipan in July, it made contact with an underwater object and immediately attacked, but no results were observed. It arrived at Okinawa on August 7th for local escort and patrol, and with the end of hostilities a week later, continued to serve as escort on the Saipan–Ulithi–Okinawa routes until November. Eldridge was placed out of commission in reserve 17 June 1946.

On 15 January 1951, it was transferred under the Mutual Defense Assistance Act to Greece where it served as HS Leon (D-54). Leon was used mainly for patrols in the Easter Aegean Sea and for cadet officer (midshipmen) training. Leon was decommissioned on November 15. 1992 and later in November 1999 it was sold as scrap to the Piraeus-based V&J Scrapmetal Trading Ltd.

Philadelphia Experiment

The "Philadelphia Experiment" was an alleged naval military experiment at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sometime around 28 October 1943 in which the USS Eldridge was to be rendered invisible (i.e. by a cloaking device) to human observers for a brief period. It is also referred to as Project Rainbow.

Battlefield Heroes

In Battlefield Heroes "Battlefield Heroes gets Bad Company", the Philadelphia Experiment carried out on the USS Eldridge, is the backstory to how George Gordon Haggard Jr. and Arkady Kirilenko ended up in the game.