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NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive

Reading (PF 66)



Call sign:
Nan - Zebra - Xray - Mike

ex-PG-174


Reading served the Navies of the United States and Argentina
Tacoma Class Patrol Frigate:

  • (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) Originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-174
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Frigate, PF-66, 15 April 1943
  • Laid down 23 May 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract at Leathem D. Smith Shipyard, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
  • Launched 28 August 1943
  • Commissioned USS Reading (PF-66), 19 August 1944 at New Orleans, LA
  • Decommissioned 19 December 1945 at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA
  • Struck from the Navy Register 8 January 1946
  • Turned over to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission
  • Sold in June 1946 to the United Boat Service Co. of New York
  • Resold to Argentina in July 1947 and renamed ARA Heroina (P 32)
  • Scrapped in 1966.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,430 t.
  • Length, 303' 11"(oa)
  • Beam 37' 6"
  • Draft 13' 8"
  • Speed 20.3 kts.
  • Complement 176
  • Armament: Three 3"/50 dual purpose mounts (For those frigates fitted out for weather patrol duty, the after 3-inch gun was removed and a weather balloon hanger was added aft), two twin 40mm mounts,
    nine 20mm, one Hedgehog, eight depth charge projectors, two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, two 5,500ihp Koppers Co. engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Reading (PF 66)
    Reading 335k 28 August 1943
    Leathem D. Smith Shipyard, Sturgeon Bay, WI
    Knoxville (PF 64) is moored outboard of Chattanooga (PF 65), later Uniontown on the left and an unidentified Submarine Chaser is on the right    		 Michael Cosgrove
    Reading 149k Fitting out, at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, in the winter of 1943-44
    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 79079    		 Mike Green
    USS Reading (PF 66)
    Reading 69k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Reading 219k c. 1944/1945
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 93004    		 Mike Green
    Heroina (P 32)
    Reading 147k c. 1947
    At New York, prior to sailing for Argentina    		 Robert Hurst
    Uniontown 134k c. 1947
    New York
    Starboard side to ARA Sarandi (P 33), ex-Uniontown (PF 65) awaiting delivery to Argentina
    Uniontown 162k
    Reading 119k Heroina arriving in Buenas Aries
    Argentine Navy photo
    Reading 110k Argentine Navy photo
    Reading 158k Dropping a depth charge pattern
    Argentine Navy photo
    Reading 149k With motor torpedo boat ARA LT-2 (P-81) escorting
    Reading 44k c. 1952
    Argentine Navy photo
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Nelson Calhoun McCormick, USCG - USCGA Class of 1935
    Awarded the Legion of Merit (1942)    		19 August 1944
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Joe Radigan
    View the Reading (PF-66)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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    This page is created Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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