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Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive

USS Ricketts (DE 254)


Flag Hoist/Radio Call Sign:
N - F - P - G
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: American Campaign Medal
Second Row: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - WWII Victory Medal
Specifications:
Class: Edsall
Type: FMR (geared diesel, Fairbanks-Morse reverse gear drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1200 tons (light), 1590 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 10" (extreme)
Draft: 20' 6" (draft limit)
Propulsion: 4 Fairbanks-Morse Mod. 38d81/8 geared diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 21 kts
Range: 9,100 nm @ 12 knots
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Complement: 8 / 201
Ricketts (DE 254) Building and Operational Data:
  • 16 March 1943: Keel laid by the Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Tex.
  • 10 May 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. Milton E. Ricketts, widow of Lieutenant Ricketts
  • 5 October 1943: Commissioned, Lcdr Glenn L. Rollins, USCG, in command
  • 17 April 1946: Decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla.
  • 1 November 1972: Stricken from the NVR
  • 18 January 1974: Sold for scrapping to Andy International, Inc., Brownsville, Tex.
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By And/Or Copyright
    Ricketts 81k Milton E. Ricketts was born in Baltimore, Md. on 5 August 1913 and was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1931. He graduated and was commissioned ensign 6 June 1935, and for the next 2 years, served in USS Ranger (CV 4). Ricketts next assisted in the fitting out of USS Yorktown (CV 5) and he thus became a plank owner of the carrier when she commissioned 30 September 1937. He served in her through the anxious prewar years, and when America entered the war, he took part in her raids in the Pacific in February and March 1942.

    During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Yorktown came under severe Japanese bombing on 8 May 1942. Ricketts was directing the engineering repair party when a bomb passed through and exploded directly beneath the compartment in which he and his crew were working. All of the men were either killed, wounded, or stunned. Ricketts, mortally wounded, worked alone to open the valve to a nearby fire plug. He succeeded in leading out part of the hose and directing a stream of water into the fire before he fell dead beside it. His courageous action undoubtedly prevented the rapid spread of the fire to serious proportions, and was recognized by the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor.

    USS Ricketts (DE 254) (1943-1946) was the first ship named in his honor.

    (U.S. Navy photo #NH 95297 from the Naval History and Heritage Command)    		 Navsource
    Ricketts 38k undated wartime image Jerry Church
    View the USS Ricketts (DE 254) DANFS history entry
    located on the Naval History and Heritage Command web site.
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    None
    Note About Contacts

    Contact information is compiled from various sources over a period of time and may, or may not, be correct. Every effort has been
    made to list the newest contact. However, our entry is only as good as the latest information that's been sent to us. We list only
    a contact for the ship if one has been sent to us. We do NOT have crew lists or rosters available. Please see the Frequently Asked
    Questions section on Navsource's Main Page for that information.

    Additional Resources
    Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
    Tin Can Sailors Shipmate Registry - USS Ricketts
    The Destroyer History Foundation
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    This Page Created And Maintained by Mike Smolinski
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    by Paul R. Yarnall, All Rights Reserved.
    Page Last Updated 21 December 2009