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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Fidelity (MSO 443)
ex-AM-443



Call sign:
November - Lima - Zulu - Lima
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 15 December 1952 by Higgins Inc., New Orleans, LA
  • Launched, 21 August 1953
  • Commissioned USS Fidelity (AM-443), 19 January 1955
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-443, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned, 19 May 1989
  • Struck from the Navy Register 16 June 1989
  • Sold for scrap 10 September 1990 to Wyns Hoggs for $13,775.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns - Final configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two shafts, controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Fidelity 42k Ships Plaque Leidie Daniëls
    The Netherlands
    Fidelity 46k Picture taken when home ported at Naval Coastal Systems Center Panama City Beach, Florida. Thomas L. Cox
    MINDIV-82 120k Ship's of Mine Division Eighty Two prepare to leave Charleston, SC for a Mediterranean deployment. MINDIV-82 ship's from left to right are: Fearless (MSO 442), Avenge (MSO 423), Exultant (MSO 441), the Belgium Minesweeper F. Bovesse (M 909) (ex-MSO-516), and Fidelity
    Official U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Leroy D. "Mo" Mahoney    		 Belgium MSO Web Site
    Fidelity 165k U.S. Navy photo Tom Langford
    Fidelity 148k . David Buell
    Fidelity 513k Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Fidelity 259k c. 1968
    Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, SC
    Fidelity moored inboard of an unidentified MSO and Sturdy (MSO 494)    		 Ken Lusk
    Photo added 19 June 2020
    Fidelity 578k 30 December 1970
    Underway in Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, MD
    Naval Photographic Center photo NPC 1147510    		 David Johnston, DCC(SS/SW), USN
    Fidelity 280k 21 September 1971
    Departing La Spezia, Italy    		 Carlo Martinelli
    Fidelity 513k c. April 1978
    Approach to NAS Jacksonville, FL
    Moored to pier with Fortify (MSO 446) on marine railway    		 ©Richard Leonhardt
    Fidelity 292k From the March 1983 edition of All Hands magazine
    Photo by LT Isnor, USCG    		 Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Fidelity 441k 1 September 1983
    Washington, DC
    A starboard bow view of Fidelity backing away from the pier after a week-long port visit to the Washington Navy Yard
    U.S. Navy photo DN-SC-83-11882 by Don S. Montgomery, USN (Ret.)    		 Original photo: Robert Cieri
    Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Creighton D. Lilly, USN19 January 1955 - 16 June 1956
    02LT Harold Grover Dudley, USN16 June 1956 - 1 December 1957
    03LCDR Leonard James Graves, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 19461 December 1957 - 7 July 1959
    04LCDR Francis Bernard Shrake, USN7 July 1959 -2 August 1960
    05CDR Willis A. Hardy, USN2 August 1960 - 13 July 1962
    06LCDR James D. McLuckie, USN13 July 1962 - 16 June 1964
    07LCDR Stephen C. Belechak, USN - Awarded the Legion of Merit with Combat "V", the Meritorious Service Medal and the Joint Service Commendation Medal with Palm16 June 1964 - 1 July 1966
    08LCDR Thomas Henry Copeman, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 19551 July 1966 - 9 December 1970
    09LCDR Jerry Lee Post, USN9 December 1970 - 25 February 1972
    10LCDR Thomas Joseph Barry, USN - USNA Class of 196625 February1972 - 15 August 1973
    11LCDR Michael Brady Booth, USN15 August 1973 - 21 July 1975
    12LCDR Christopher Stephen Ott, USN - USNA Class of 196721 July 1975 - 19 August 1977
    13LCDR Robert Francis Krapohl, USN - USNA Class of 196719 August 1977 - 14 July 1978
    14CDR John W. Stevenson, USN14 July 1978 - 30 May 1980
    15CDR Robert Sherwood Rawls, USN30 May 1980 - 15 October 1982
    16LCDR Roger Keith Hope, USN - USNA Class of 197115 October 1982 - 1 September 1984
    17LCDR Richard Morgan Hunt, USN1 September 1984 - 9 January 1987
    18LCDR Carlton M. Baldwin, IV, USN9 January 1987 - 16 June 1989
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Peter M. Leenhouts
    View the Fidelity (MSO 443)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
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