View source for USS Keith (DE-241)

{{For|United States Navy ships named ''Willard Keith''|USS Willard Keith}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}

{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=USS Keith (DE-241) anchored in Shanghai, China, on 3 January 1946.jpg
|Ship caption=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1946}}
|Ship name=USS ''Keith''
|Ship namesake=Ellis Judson Keith
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[Brown Shipbuilding Company]]
|Ship laid down=1942
|Ship launched=21 December 1942
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=19 July 1943
|Ship decommissioned=20 September 1946
|Ship struck=1 November 1972
|Ship honors=1 × [[battle star]] for World War II service
|Ship fate=Scrapped, 1974
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class={{sclass|Edsall|destroyer escort}}
|Ship displacement=1,200 tons
|Ship length={{convert|306|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|26|ft|7|in|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft={{convert|8|ft|7|in|abbr=on}}
|Ship propulsion=
|Ship speed={{convert|21|kn|km/h|abbr=on}}
|Ship complement=186
|Ship armament=3 × [[3"/50 caliber gun|{{convert|3|in|mm|abbr=on}}]], 8 × [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|40 mm]]., 10 × [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|20 mm]]., 2 × depth charge tracks, 8 × [[K-gun]] depth charge projectors, 3 × [[American 21 inch torpedo|21 inch (533 mm)]] torpedo tubes
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''USS ''Keith'' (DE-241)''' was an {{sclass|Edsall|destroyer escort}} in service with the [[United States Navy]] from 1943 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1974.

==Namesake==
Ellis Judson Keith Jr. was born on 30 June 1919 at [[Houston]], [[Texas]]. He entered the Navy as a Seaman Second Class on 2 October 1941. He was assigned as a radioman and gunner on a patrol plane that flew on aerial bombardments and strafing attacks on [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] ships in the [[Aleutian Islands Campaign|Aleutian Islands]]. He was killed in action during a mission over [[Kiska]] Harbor on 11 June 1942 and was posthumously awarded the [[Air Medal]].

==History==
''Keith'' was originally laid down as ''Scott'' but renamed ''Keith'' on 8 December 1942, and was [[Ship naming and launching|launched]] 21 December 1942 by the [[Brown Shipbuilding Company]] in [[Houston]], Texas. ''Keith'' was sponsored by Mrs. Ellis J. Keith Sr., the mother of Seaman Keith; and [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] 19 July 1943 at Houston, Texas.

===Battle of the Atlantic===
After [[Sea trial|shakedown]] and training exercises out of [[Bermuda]], ''Keith'' sailed from [[Norfolk, Virginia]] 14 September 1943 on the first of three voyages escorting [[convoy]]s from [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] ports to [[Gibraltar]].

After returning from convoy escort duty 22 February 1944, ''Keith'' underwent extensive refresher training and participated in antisubmarine warfare exercises before sailing on 15 March as part of [[escort carrier]] {{USS|Tripoli|CVE-64|6}}'s newly formed hunter-killer group.  With this group she patrolled the [[Atlantic Ocean]] from [[Brazil]] to [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] in search of enemy [[submarine]]s.

In July, she joined a similar group operating with escort carrier {{USS|Core|CVE-13|6}}. On 30 August, ''Core'''s hunter-killer group contacted an enemy submarine.  ''Keith'', assisting in the search, made two hedgehog attacks with inconclusive results.

''Keith'' continued to operate with the hunter-killer group patrolling the waters of the Atlantic, escorting convoys from "mid-ocean point" to ports in Brazil, [[Bermuda]], Newfoundland, [[Cuba]], and the United States. On 23 April 1945, the hunter-killer group, operating as a combined force against a large wolfpack of [[U-boat]]s, spotted a partially submerged submarine but could not locate it after it dived. While searching the next day, {{USS|Frederick C. Davis|DE-136|6}}, a destroyer escort in company, was torpedoed and sunk. ''Keith'' and a task group ships headed to the position where the ''Frederick C. Davis'' had gone down and launched a [[depth charge]] attack that lasted some 12 hours before {{GS|U-546||2}} was forced to surface.  The destroyer escorts opened fire on the submarine; and ''Keith'' made two direct hits before the U-boat sank.  After the engagement, ''Keith'' rescued four survivors from the submarine.

===Pacific War===
In mid-July, ''Keith'' departed [[Guantanamo Bay, Cuba]], for duty in the [[Pacific Ocean]]. ''Keith'' found herself in [[Pearl Harbor]] at the end of hostilities with the Japanese and got underway for [[Saipan]] to perform escort duty and mop-up operations. Shortly after arriving, 31 August, she was assigned an air-sea rescue station between [[Iwo Jima]] and Japan.  At the end of the year ''Keith'' sailed for China, arriving [[Shanghai]] on the last day of December. She remained there patrolling and escorting vessels until sailing for the United States on 10 April 1946 via Pearl Harbor and the [[Panama Canal]] arriving at [[Charleston, South Carolina]] on 15 May 1946.

===Decommissioning and Fate===
''Keith'' was towed to [[Green Cove Springs, Florida]], where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 20 September 1946.  By the late 1960s she was still in reserve and berthed at [[Orange, Texas]] being stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on 1 November 1972 and sold for scrap on 1 December 1973.

''Keith'' received one [[battle star]] for [[World War II]] service.

==References==
<references/>
*{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/k/keith.html}}
*{{Naval Vessel Register|{{Naval Vessel Register URL|id=DE241}}}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|USS Keith (DE-241)}}
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/241.htm Navsource USS ''Keith'' (DE-241)]

{{Edsall class destroyer escort}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith (De-241)}}
<!--Categories-->
[[Category:Edsall-class destroyer escorts]]
[[Category:World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States]]
[[Category:Ships built in Orange, Texas]]
[[Category:1942 ships]]