Rose S. Parks; and commissioned on 8 January Stein was decommissioned on 19 March and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 January The Knox -class was an enlarged derivative of the Brooke -class frigate , omitting the Brooke ' s expensive Tartar medium range surface to air missiles and the high pressure boilers used by the Brooke and Garcia -class frigate frigates.
The ship was ft Displacement was 3, long tons 3, t light and 4, long tons 4, t full load. A helicopter deck and hangar for operating the DASH drone helicopter was fitted aft. Stein , named for Medal of Honor recipient Tony Stein , [ 11 ] was one of 16 Knox -class Destroyer Escorts ordered under the US Navy's Fiscal year construction program, [ 5 ] with the order being placed on 22 July The ship was laid down at Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company 's Seattle shipyard on 1 June and was launched on 19 December She was commissioned on 8 January , being assigned the Hull number DE The ocean escort spent another eight weeks at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and completed fitting-out.
She conducted trials, then got underway in early March and arrived at her home port, San Diego, on 17 March. Two weeks later, she headed south along the coast of Mexico and South America on her shakedown cruise.
Stein returned to San Diego in May and, late the following month, commenced post-shakedown repairs and modifications at Long Beach Naval Shipyard. On 8 December, she completed yard work and began intensive preparations for her first deployment to the western Pacific. She operated with the 7th Fleet until the end of August, when she cleared the area for a visit to Australia and New Zealand before returning to the west coast.
The escort remained in port there until June , when she got underway for a series of special operations. Stein then operated out of San Diego until mid-August. After a short period in port, she departed again on another special operation. This one, however, ended at Cubi Point on Subic Bay in the Philippines and began her second tour of duty with the 7th Fleet. The warship worked out of Subic Bay until late October when she sailed on a voyage that carried her to Singapore, and thence into the Indian Ocean.
