PT-490 was an 80-foot Elco from the Elco Works at Bayonne: about 56 tons, three Packard gasoline engines, roughly 40 knots, and a crew of about 14 to 17. The crew called her Little Bitch. She was placed in service on 2 December 1943 in Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 33, Lieutenant A. Murray Preston's squadron. Preston is the officer cited for the Medal of Honor rescue off Halmahera on 16 September 1944. His flag was not in this boat that night.
Boat captain and section leader was Lieutenant (junior grade) John M. McElfresh. On the night of 24-25 October 1944 she patrolled the middle of Surigao Strait with PT-491 and PT-493. The boats were among 39 under Commander Selman S. Bowling.
She picked up four radar targets, fired two torpedoes at the leading destroyer, then two more at 400 yards, and shot the searchlight out with all guns. A shell holed her above the waterline and wounded Torpedoman's Mate 3rd Class Arthur G. Peterson. McElfresh thought one torpedo had hit. It had not. Around 0530 she sighted a cruiser, fired two more torpedoes, and retired behind smoke. The next morning four dive bombers attacked her. The first two missed by about 200 yards, and gunfire turned the others away.
She was placed out of service on 24 October 1945. She was not sunk in the battle.