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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Left and center courtesy of Mike Smolinski, right courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler

Esteem (MSO 438)

Call sign:
November - Delta - Foxtrot - Hotel

ex-AM-438

Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

Laid down 1 September 1952 as Esteem (AM-438) by the Martinolich Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA

Launched 20 December 1952

Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-438, 7 February 1955

Commissioned USS Esteem (MSO-438), 10 September 1955

Decommissioned 30 September 1970

Recommissioned 27 August 1971

Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register 30 September 1991 and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Bremerton, WA Group

Disposed of through the Maritime Administration 6 March 2000

Sold for scrap to Crowley Marine Services of Long Beach, CA.

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, two .50 cal. machine guns remain

Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
Esteem
	80k	10 September 1955 Commissioning invitation	Mike Smolinski
USS Esteem (MSO 438)
	60k		Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
	42k	Photos courtesy of RMCS Ron Schwab, USN	Dick Lewis 102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers website
	167k	Photo courtesy of Sam McCrow
	89k	.	Tommy Trampp
	179k	.	Tommy Trampp
	291k	U.S. Navy photo	David Wright
	141k	c. October 1955 Post-commissioning shakedown off San Diego. Note original MSO configuration with short stack and boom for handling motor whaleboat. In march 1956 Long Beach Naval Shipyard removed boom and installed Wellin davit for launching motor whaleboat Photo courtesy of Stan Cochran	Original photo: Dick Lewis 102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers website Replacement photo: David Wright
	128k	c. 1956 U.S. Navy photo	Robert M. Cieri
	91k	2 July 1956 U.S. Navy photo	David Wright
	177k	c. September 1957 Returning to Long Beach, CA from deployment to WestPac Bridge Officer on the right is LTJG Stanley H. Cochran	David Wright
	228k	c. mid-1958 Off San Diego Photo courtesy of Stan Cochran	Dick Lewis 102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers website
	257k	19 August 1960 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Photo by Walter E. Frost from City of Vancouver Archives	Michael Mohl
	617k	Ocean minesweepers of Mine Division 73 steam together in Pacific. Top to Bottom: USS Illusive (MSO 448), Conquest (MSO 488), Esteem, Gallant (MSO 489) and Pledge (MSO 492). The sweepers are working out of their home port at Long Beach, CA U.S. Navy photo from the August 1965 edition of All Hands magazine	Joe Radigan
	137k	c. Spring 1973 USS Guadalupe (AO-32) refueling Esteem off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Endsweep	CDR Michael Cosgrove, USN, Ret. USS Conquest
	130k	c. 1978 Pier 90, Seattle, WA Esteem, USS Conquest (MSO 488), USS Implicit (MSO 455), USS Higbee (DD 806), USS McKean (DD 784) and inboard of the DD's is USS Hector (AR 7)	Dave Hood GMT2
	144k	9 July 1986 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Photo by Rick Garcia	Chris Howell
	98k	29 October 1987 Arabian Gulf NEW ARRIVALS The long awaited U.S. Navy Minesweepers US-[MSO] 438 the Esteem, followed by US- [MSO] 437 Enhance, lead the Frigate Carr [FFG 52], top right, and the Support ship Barbour County [LST 1195], up the Arabian Gulf off Dubai today Thursday, bringing the number of U.S. warships in the area to Forty Associated Press wirephoto pk42030 by Peter Kemp	Tommy Trampp
	385k	1 March 1988 U.S. Navy photo DN-ST-89-02594 by PH2 Alexander C. Hicks, Jr., USN	Robert Hurst
	102k	c. fall 1989. Esteem, Conquest (MSO 488) and Enhance (MSO 437) inport at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain towards the end of Operation Earnest Will	Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
	92k	c. fall 1989. Basrac Shipyard Drydock, Bahrain.
	65k	c. fall 1989. Basrac Shipyard worker repairs deck on port side O1 level
	106k	c. fall 1989. LT Dave Bruin, Esteem's Chief Engineer. Basrac Shipyard.
	48k	c. Winter 1989. Esteem's Wardroom. LCDR Steve Johnson (CO), LT Russ Harris (XO), LT Dave Bruin (Chief Engineer), ENS Wes Spence (Deck), ENS Tom Womble (Supply), LTJG Pete Petrucione (Operations), ENS Steve Powell (Communications), on port side of Pilot House while ship was inport Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain
	88k	c. Winter 1989. LT Dave Bruin, LTJG Pete Petrucione, ENS Wes Spence in the Wardroom after hours
	91k	c. Winter 1989. LTJG Pete Petrucione enjoys a humorous tape on an off duty night in the Arabian Gulf.
	182k	c. Winter 1989. Port propeller, in dry dock, Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain.
	107k	c. Winter 1989. Starboard quarter, in dry dock, Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain.
	102k	c. Winter 1989. Stern view, in dry dock, Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain.
	78k	c. November 1989. Esteem, Enhance (MSO 437) and Conquest (MSO 488) in the Arabian Gulf
	75k	c. April 1990. Esteem, Enhance and Conquest return to Seattle aboard the Super Servant 3 from the Arabian gulf. This apparently was the first multiship lift for the Navy.
	63k
	75k	c. Summer 1990. Pilot House of Esteem while in a maintenance period at Lake Union Drydock Company, Seattle, WA.
	58k	c. fall 1990. Open bridge. Lake Union Drydock Co, Seattle, WA.
Esteem
	108k	26 June 2000 Being scrapped at Crowley Marine Services Photo courtesy of Friends of USS Esteem MSO-438	Tommy Trampp
	88k		Tommy Trampp

Commanding Officers
01	LCDR George W. Bird, USN	10 September 1955 - July 1957
02	LT Timothy J. Keen, USN	July 1957 - 1958
03	LT Howard Norman Kay, USN - USNA Class of 1948-B	April 1958 - 12 October 1959
04	LCDR James Patrick "Jim" McMahon, USN	12 October 1959 - 8 July 1960
05	LCDR George Albert Harper, USN	8 July 1960 - 1961
06	LCDR James Thomas Williams, USN	1961 - 17 July 1963
07	LCDR/CDR Thomas Owen Nutt, Jr., USN	17 July 1963 - 28 April 1965
08	LCDR Hainyard Liston "Les" Horne, Jr., USN	28 April 1965 - 8 August 1967
09	LCDR Paul Hamilton Jacobs, USN	8 August 1967 - 23 July 1969
10	LT/LCDR Lauren Seeber, USN	23 July 1969 - 30 September 1970
11	LT Frank John Dobscha, Jr., USN	30 September 1970 - 1972
12	LT Donald Bruce Haslett, USN - USNA Class of 1966	1972 - 11 August 1974
13	LT Stanley B. Chepenik, USN	11 August 1974
14	LCDR William Harvey Skidmore, USN	1979
15	LCDR Thomas Milton Daly, USN	1979 - 1980
16	LCDR Arthur Eugene Osiecki, USN	January 1980 - February 1983
17	LCDR William Howard Ward, USN	February 1983 - 10 August 1985
18	LCDR Alfred W. Mitchell, USN	10 August 1985 - 1986
19	LCDR Peter Avard Chipman Long, USN	1986 - 27 June 1987
20	CDR Robert Emmett McCabe, III, USN - USNA Class of 1974	27 June 1987 - January 1988
21	LCDR Bruce T. VanBelle, USN	January 1988 - June 1988
22	LCDR William A. Weronko, USN	June 1988 - October 1988
23	LCDR James E. Keys, Jr., USN	October 1988 - July 1989
24	LCDR Michael Stewart O'Bryan, USN - Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, Seven Legions of Merit and the Bronze Star Retired as Rear Admiral	July 1989 - August 1989
25	LCDR Michael McQueen Moore, USN	August 1989 - October 1989
26	LCDR Steven Paul Johnson, USN	October 1989 - May 1990
27	LCDR Richard B. Southard, USN	May 1990 - 20 September 1991

Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, Peter M. Leenhouts and Joe Radigan

View the Esteem (MSO-438)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website

Additional Resources and Websites of Interest
Booklet of General Plans
from the Historic Naval Ships Association website
102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers

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