USS Tollberg (APD-103) was a United States Navyhigh-speed transport in commission from 1945 to 1946. In 1965, Tollberg was transferred to Colombia and served as ARC Almirante Padilla (DT-03) until being stricken and scrapped in 1973.
On the afternoon of 30 January 1943, during the second day of the Battle of Rennell Island, La Vallette was screening the damaged heavy cruiserUSS Chicago when 11 Japanesetorpedo planes attacked. La Vallette received a torpedo hit in her forward engine room which killed 22 members of the crew. Watertender Second Class Tollberg, although fatally scalded by high-temperature steam, climbed up the fire room ladder and emerged on the main deck through a hatch which had been blown open by the detonation. Despite severe pain and partial blindness, he died trying to close the control valve through which fuel oil was pouring into the fireroom below, where a number of his helpless shipmates were trapped. He then collapsed and soon died of his wounds. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Tollberg stood out of Boston, Massachusetts, on 18 February 1945 for shakedown training off Bermuda. She left Bermuda on 9 March and arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 11 March.
On 8 August, Tollberg and destroyer escort Abercrombie joined battleshipsCalifornia and Nevada to screen them on a voyage to the Philippine Islands. On 9 August, Tollberg rescued a pilot from California whose float plane had swamped while taxiing in to be picked up. The warships arrived at Leyte in the Philippines on 11 August, and Tollberg remained there until 20 August. World War II ended during her stay at Leyte with the surrender of Japan on 15 August.
Postwar
Tollberg departed the Philippines on 20 August to escort a convoy to Okinawa and returned to Leyte on 29 August. Between 20 September and 3 October, she escorted Transport Squadron 14 to Wakayama Bay, Japan, and back to Leyte. On 2 November, she left Manila, Luzon, to carry passengers to Okinawa and, after escorting amphibious force command shipEstes to Shanghai, China, disembarked them at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on 7 November. On 12 November, she was back at Manila. Between 24 and 26 November, she embarked 156 passengers at Samar in the Philippines for passage to the United States East Coast.