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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive

PCE(R) / EPCE(R)-855 Rexburg


PCE(R)-489 Class Patrol Craft Escort (Rescue): Laid down, 8 December 1943 by the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Chicago, IL; Launched, 10 April 1944; Commissioned USS PCE(R)-855, 1 November 1944 at New Orleans, LA; Redesignated as an Experimental Patrol Craft (Rescue) Ship EPCE(R)-855, 7 June 1946; Named Rexburg, 15 February 1956; Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 2 March 1970; Sold, 28 October 1970 to the National Metal and Steel Corp., Terminal Island, CA; Sold to L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology and renamed Asia; Later renamed Excalibur. Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 850 t; Length 184' 6"; Beam 33' 1"; Draft 9' 5"; Speed 15.7k; Complement 99; Armament one single 3"/50 dual purpose mount and two single 40mm; Propulsion two General Motors 12-278A diesel engines, two shafts.


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For Full Size Image
Size Image Description Source
PCER-855 129k c. 1944
US National Archives photo
Ted Mayhugh
PCER-855 186k Casualties from USS Evans (DD-552) are brought aboard USS PCER-855 from USS Ringness (APD-100), after Evans was damaged by Kamikaze attacks while on radar picket duty off Okinawa on 11 May 1945. Photographed from on board PCER-855. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
U.S. Navy Photo 80-G-331077
Fred Weiss
PCER-855 62k c. 1945. EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 47k Being approached by a Liberty boat. Note the Movie Screen rigged on the forecastle. EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 104k c. 1945.
"Bum Boats" at Hong Kong.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 29k c. 1945.
LCM alongside to starboard.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 79k c. 1945.
Dry docked at Pearl Harbor.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 77k c. 1945.
Dry docked at Pearl Harbor.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 80k c. 1945.
Dry docked at Pearl Harbor.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 66k c. 1945.
Inspecting the port shaft in dry dock at Pearl Harbor.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 175k c. 1945.
Starboard shaft strut packing glands being removed in dry dock at Pearl Harbor.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 128k c. 1945.
Working on both shafts in dry dock at Pearl Harbor.
EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 48k Cleaning the 3"/50 gun EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
PCER-855 43k Taking green water over the bow. EM3 James Rowan
via his grandson Rick Rowan
Rexburg 95k Rexburg (EPCER 855) as an experimental ship, armament removed
and a heavy boom installed at her stern to handle equipment for underwater sound experiments.
DANFS

View the Rexburg (PCE(R)-855)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site. The main archive for the DANFS Online Project.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Patrol Craft Sailors Association
"PC Patrol Craft of World War II"
by William J. Veigele, Ph.D., USNR, Ret. PC-793

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This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joe Radigan
© 2005 Gary P. Priolo © 1996 - 2005 NavSource Naval History. All Rights Reserved.