Rexburg (EPCER-855)
1955-1970
A city in the state of Idaho.
(PCER-855: displacement 903 (full load); length 184'6"; beam 33'1"; draft 10'0"; speed 14.0 knots; complement 110; armament 1 3--inch, 2 40 millimeter, 6 20 millimeter, 3 depth charge projectors, 2 depth charge tracks)
PCER-855 was laid down 8 December 1943 at Chicago, Illinois, by the Pullman Car Manufacturing Co.; launched 10 April 1944; and commissioned on 1 November 1944 as at New Orleans, La., Lt. Arnold C. Anderson in command.
After completion of shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico in January 1945, PCER-855 transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 18 February for duty in the Pacific Fleet. She next sailed for Ulithi Atoll via Saipan to participate in the invasion of Okinawa.
PCER -855 operated in the waters around Okinawa until July 1945, chiefly involved in support and rescue work on the destroyer picket line surrounding Okinawa, and antisubmarine patrols in and around various anchorage sites. In August she commenced operations in Leyte Gulf, and until 2 December, she operated in Philippine waters and in the South China Sea.
PCER-855 touched at Guam on 8 December 1945, called at Pearl Harbor on 22 December for repairs, and arrived at San Diego, Calif., on 15 February 1946 for duties under the Navy Electronics Laboratory there. Redesignated EPCER-855 on 7 June 1946, she underwent alterations at Terminal Island Naval Shipyard, San Pedro, Calif., that enhanced her suitability for service as a laboratory research ship.
In October 1951 she was assigned to the Eleventh Naval District for duty out of San Diego, still under the operational control of the Navy's Electronics Laboratory. Subsequent scientific project assignments took her into coastal waters, and in 1955 she was christened Rexburg.
In October 1959 Rexburg came under the operational control of Operational Test and Evaluation Force, Pacific Projects Division, and she continued to conduct electronic, communications, navigational, and underwater sound experiments.
Rexburg-s operations have taken her to various west coast ports, as well as to Hawaii and Mexico. She shifted from the Eleventh Naval District to the Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Pacific on 1 July 1967, and remained a unit of Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Nine until decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 March 1970.
Rexburg's hulk was sold on 28 October 1970 to the National Metal & Steel Corp., Terminal Island, Calif., and broken up for scrap.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
10 April 2024
