USS Alexandria (PF-18) was a Tacoma-class patrol frigate built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second vessel to bear the name Alexandria, but the first to be named for the city of Alexandria, Virginia. The ship was laid down on June 23, 1943, under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1848) at the American Ship Building Company in Lorain, Ohio. She was launched on January 15, 1944, with Mrs. J. Leslie Hall sponsoring the event. After launching, she was towed down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she was fitted out and officially commissioned on March 11, 1945. Constructed as a Tacoma-class frigate, Alexandria's specifications included a hull designed for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and patrol duties, although specific dimensions and armament details are not provided in the source. Following her commissioning, she conducted shakedown and ASW training out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in late March and early April 1945. After completing her shakedown on April 19, she entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for post-shakedown repairs, which concluded by May 4. The end of the European theater of World War II in May 1945 shifted her operational focus from anti-U-boat patrols to weather patrol duty. She received modifications at the Charleston Navy Yard and began weather patrols off the Newfoundland coast in late June 1945. Her service was relatively brief; she visited Alexandria, Virginia, in late October and early November 1945. By February 1946, she was considered surplus to Navy needs and was transferred to the Boston Naval Shipyard, remaining there until March. On March 12, 1946, she arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, and was decommissioned on April 10, 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy list on May 21, 1946, and she was sold for scrapping to the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company of Chester, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1947. USS Alexandria's service marked her as part of the rapid wartime shipbuilding effort, primarily serving as a weather ship in the Atlantic late in World War II, with her operational history reflecting the transition from wartime to postwar naval needs.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.