USS Micka (DE-176)

Career
Name:	USS Micka
Namesake:	Edward Micka
Builder:	Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newark, New Jersey
Laid down:	3 May 1943
Launched:	22 August 1943
Commissioned:	23 September 1943
Decommissioned:	14 June 1946
Struck:	1 August 1965
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 15 May 1967
General characteristics
Class and type:	Cannon-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,240 long tons (1,260 t) standard 1,620 long tons (1,646 t) full
Length:	306 ft (93 m) o/a 300 ft (91 m) w/l
Beam:	36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft:	11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion:	4 × GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6,000 shp (4,474 kW), 2 screws
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range:	10,800 nmi (20,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers and 201 enlisted
Armament:	• 3 × single Mk.22 3"/50 caliber guns • 1 × twin 40 mm Mk.1 AA gun • 8 × 20 mm Mk.4 AA guns • 3 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes • 1 × Hedgehog Mk.10 anti-submarine mortar (144 rounds) • 8 × Mk.6 depth charge projectors • 2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks

USS Micka (DE-176) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.

Micka was named in honor of Edward Micka who had been awarded the Navy Cross. The ship was laid down on 3 May 1943 by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Kearny, New Jersey; launched on 22 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Edward Micka, widow of Lieutenant Micka; and commissioned on 23 September 1943, Lt. G. C. Spencer in command.

World War II Atlantic Ocean operations

Assigned to Escort Division 24 Micka guarded merchantmen and naval supply vessels plying the waters of the eastern Atlantic from Recife, Brazil, to New York until 12 November 1944. She then reported at Recife for three months of mid-ocean anti-submarine patrols with the U.S. 4th Fleet. Detached in March 1945, she steamed north; served briefly with the Eastern Sea Frontier on anti-submarine patrol; and then completed a round trip voyage to Oran, Algeria, as convoy escort. On 11 June she entered the Charleston, South Carolina, Navy Yard for overhaul preparatory to her transfer to the Pacific.

Transfer to the Pacific at war's end

Micka arrived at Pearl Harbor on 15 August, the day after Japan agreed to surrender under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. She remained in Hawaii, conducting local exercises, until 18 December, when, with over 300 naval passengers, she got underway for the east coast. She disembarked her passengers at Boston, Massachusetts, on 6 January and sailed at the end of the month for Green Cove Springs, Florida.

Post-War decommissioning

At Green Cove Springs she decommissioned and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet on 14 June 1946. Micka remained berthed in the St. Johns River until struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 August 1965, and sold for scrapping to Peck Iron & Metals Co., on 15 May 1967.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

See also

• List of United States Navy ships
• World War II
• Destroyer escort

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Micka (DE-176) at NavSource Naval History