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Please wikify this article or section. Help improve this article by adding relevant internal links. (April 2008) |
.jpg) USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) |
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| Career (US) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) |
| Namesake: | Admiral Joseph Strauss |
| Ordered: | July 21, 1959 |
| Builder: | New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey |
| Laid down: | December 27, 1960 |
| Launched: | December 9, 1961 |
| Acquired: | March 29, 1963 |
| Commissioned: | April 20, 1963 |
| Decommissioned: | 1 February 1990 |
| Struck: | 11 January 1995 |
| Fate: | Sold to Greece |
| Career (Greece) |  |
| Name: | HS Formion D-220 |
| Namesake: | Athenian Admiral Formion |
| Commissioned: | 1 October 1992 |
| Decommissioned: | 29 July 2002 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap 19 February 2004 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Charles F. Adams-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 3,277 tons standard, 4,526 full load |
| Length: | 437 ft (133 m) |
| Beam: | 47 ft (14 m) |
| Draft: | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × General Electric steam turbines providing 70,000 shp (52 MW); 2 shafts 4 x Combustion Engineering 1,275 psi (8,790 kPa) boilers |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h) |
| Range: | 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h) |
| Complement: | 354 (24 officers, 330 enlisted) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
AN/SPS-39 3D air search radar AN/SPS-10 surface search radar AN/SPG-51 missile fire control radar AN/SPG-53 gunfire control radar AN/SQS-23 Sonar |
| Armament: | 1x launcher for Tartar SAM system 2x Mark 42 5in(127mm)/54 1x ASROC Launcher 6x 12.8in(324mm) ASW Torpedo Tubes (2xMark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes) |
| Aircraft carried: | None |
| Motto: | Promptus ad Agendum Ready to act |
USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16), named for Admiral Joseph Strauss USN (1861–1948), was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer of the United States Navy.
Joseph Strauss was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 27 December 1960, launched on 9 December 1961 by Mrs. Lawrence Haines Coburn, granddaughter of Admiral Joseph Strauss and commissioned on 20 April 1963.
Joseph Strauss served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the conflict in Vietnam.
Contents |
1960s
Joseph Strauss departed Philadelphia 6 June 1963 for a brief cruise to Puerto Rico and Willemstad, Cracao, and then transited the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet on the western seaboard. She arrived in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard 13 July 1963 for alterations, followed by tactics out of San Diego north to Seattle, Wash.
The flagship of Destroyer Squadron 3, Joseph Strauss sailed from Long Beach 30 June 1964. After calling at Pearl Harbor and Midway Atoll, she arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, 18 July. While in port at Yokosuka, the crew of the Strauss learned that North Vietnamese PT boats had attacked the U.S. destroyer Maddox in the Tonkin Gulf, and the ship hurried out of port with other units of Desron 3 to join carrier forces in the South China Sea. She departed 3 August 1964 to rendezvous off Okinawa 6 August with USS Constellation (CV-64). During this time, U.S. Naval aircraft from Constellation conducted air strikes over North Vietnam. She then patrolled off the Vietnam coast and the South China Sea with task forces built around Constellation, Kearsarge and Ticonderoga. Brief sweeps were made to the Philippines and ports of Japan. She arrived in Yokosuka 15 December 1964 for upkeep, again sailing 21 January 1965 to support U.S. Forces in Vietnam until 1 March. During this period, she operated with Ranger, Hancock, Coral Sea, and Yorktown.
Following upkeep in Subic Bay (1-10 March), Joseph Strauss sailed with ships of the Royal Thai Navy for exercises in the Gulf of Thailand. She was briefly flagship of the 7th Fleet (22-26 March) during the official visit of Vice Admiral Paul B. Blackburn, Jr., to Bangkok, Thailand. She departed Yokosuka, 19 April for operations that brought recognition and honor to both the ship and her crew.
Commencing 24 April 1965, Joseph Strauss, together with Ernest G. Small, was part of the first advanced SAR/AAW picket team in the Gulf of Tonkin to support U.S. air strike operations against North Vietnam. From 16 through 21 May, she observed operations of a Russian task unit. She returned to Yokosuka (23 May-4 June), then again sailed for the Gulf of Tonkin. Her ensuing 27 days as flagship of the AAW/SAR picket unit were highly successful, establishing operational procedures and capabilities which remain destroyer standards. On 17 June 1965, two F4B Phantom's from USS Midway, under Joseph Strauss' advisory control, shot down two MIG-17's, accounting for the first two hostile aircraft downed by U.S. Forces in aerial combat since 1953. Three days later, two propeller-driven Skyraiders, also from Midway and under Joseph Strauss' advisory air control shot down another MiG-17. As a result, members of Strauss' Combat Information Center team were decorated by the Secretary of the Navy.
Joseph Strauss arrived in Hong Kong 6 July 1965, putting out to sea 14 to 16 July to avoid Typhoon Freda, and again 18 to 19 July to carry the 7th Fleet Salvage Officer to Pratus Reef to assist in refloating USS Frank Knox. She departed Hong Kong 21 July for Yokosuka. The following day she took a disabled Nationalist Chinese fishing boat in tow and delivered it safely to Keelung the 23d, thence sailed to Yokosuka, arriving 25 July for upkeep.
On 3 September 1965, she successfully fired two improved Tartar missiles off Okinawa. After a 1-day stop at Sasebo, Joseph Strauss proceeded south in the screen of Bon Homme Richard. Upon arrival in the South China Sea, she was detached for picket patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin during the last 3 weeks of September She spent the first 2 weeks of October supporting operations off Vietnam in the screen of Bon Homme Richard and Oriskany. She then returned to Subic Bay for naval gunfire support training which continued off Da-nang, South Vietnam. On 28 October 1965, she fired her first shots in anger, expending 217 5-inch shells in support of a combined ARVN-Marine Corps search-and-destroy operation against the Viet Cong. Joseph Strauss thus became the first U.S. Navy DDG to fire her guns at enemy targets. As a result of this action, the ship's crew received a commendation from the Commanding General, 2nd U.S. Marine Division. Throughout November she formed an advanced SAR/AAW picket team with USS USS Henry W. Tucker (DD-875) in the Gulf of Tonkin. She returned to Yokosuka 7 December 1965 for upkeep and preparations to resume operations off South Vietnam. Joseph Strauss returned to the Gulf of Tonkin 10 February 1966 and remained active in the war zone until heading for Hong Kong exactly one month later. Back in the fighting 26 April, she remained in the war zone until returning to Yokosuka 15 June. That day her home port was changed to Pearl Harbor which she reached 26 July.
Joseph Strauss operated in the Hawaiian area until heading back for the Western Pacific 14 January 1967. She remained in the Far East supporting the struggle against Communist aggression until returning to Pearl Harbor 17 June.
1978-1980 Overhaul and Deployment Preparations
Upon return from deployment the USS Joseph Strauss returned to it's home port of Peal Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii and entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a major overhaul. The ship was drydocked and the crew lived in a barge until the ship becam habitable once again. The overhaul was completed in May 1979 and the Strauss began a period of intense operations preparing for deployment to the Western Pacific. The Strauss performed high speed tests as part of the exit from the shipyard and attained a speed of 35.2 sustained knots on full power operations making it the fastest ship in Pearl Harbor. Amazingly, in reverse the Strauss sustained a speed of 19 knots.
The Strauss peformed Refresher training, engineering workups with the CINCPACFLT Propulsion Examining Board (PEB) culminating in Light Off Examination (LOE) followed by an Operational Propulsion Plant Examination (OPPE) and various other examinations. The ship participated in a large scale exercise; Rimpac 80 with ships from the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Canada. It was during RIMPAC that the ship made it first rescue at sea of an Australian sailor followed by two more on deployment. Shortly before deploying in June 1980 the Strass won the DESRON 25 race with three other ships. The Strauss waxed the USS Goldsborough DDG-20, the USS Cochrane DDG-21 and unfairly, an FF-1052 class frigate.
1980 Westpac Cruise and Rescue of Vietnamese Boat People
On 15 July 1980, the USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16), deployed to the Western Pacific as part of CTF-75 under the command of CDR John W. Benepe, USN was operating in the South China Sea. A patrolling VP-40 P-3C Orion spotted a small boat filled with Vietnamese refugees in the vicinity of the Strauss. The aircraft contacted the Strauss and gave the position of the boat. The Strauss steamed to the location, and resucued 44 refugees. They had been at sea for over 40 days, suffered three pirate encounters and by the time the Strauss arrived on scene a few deaths. Unfortunately, just as the Strauss arrived a small girl died. After the Strauss picked up the survivors the boat was abandoned, set afire and listed as a hazard to navigation. The USS Joseph Strauss, with the survivors, proceeded directly to the Naval Station Subic Bay in the Philippines arriving 16 July 1980. The web site for the Strauss contains photographs and personal stories about how the rescue impacted them and where some of the rescued survivors are today. It was a proud moment for the ship and in conjuction with two other rescues on the 1980 deployment earned the ship the Humanitarian Service Medal. The ship conducted special operations in the Sea of Okhotsk and port calls in Guam, Hong Kong, Pusan, South Korea and Yokosuka, Japan. The ship won the Crock of Kim Chee competition and the wardroom was invited to leave every Officer's Club in the Western Pacific prematurely.
Operation Praying Mantis
On April 14 1988, USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) sighted three mines floating approximately one-half mile from the ship. Twenty minutes after the first sighting, as Samuel B. Roberts was backing clear of the minefleld, she struck a submerged mine nearly ripping the warship in half. The crew stabilized the ship. Samuel B. Roberts was sent back to the United States for repair.
On April 18, 1988, Operation Praying Mantis took place which was an attack by U.S. Naval Forces in retaliation for the Iranian Mining of the Persian Gulf and damage to an American ship (Samuel B. Roberts).The battle, the largest for American surface forces since World War II, sank two Iranian warships and it also marked the first surface-to-surface missile engagement in U.S. Navy History. The Americans attacked with several groups of surface warships, plus aircraft .
In the middle of the action, Joshan, an Iranian Combattante II Kaman-class fast attack craft, challenged USS Wainwright and Surface Action Group Charlie, firing a Harpoon missile at them. The USS Simpson responded to the challenge by firing four Standard missiles, while Wainwright followed with two Standard missiles. The attacks destroyed the Iranian ship's superstructure but did not immediately sink it, but The three ships of SAG Charlie (Wainwright, Simpson, and Bagley) closed on the Joshan, destroying it with naval gunfire. Fighting continued when the Iranian frigate Sahand departed Bandar Abbas and challenged elements of an American surface group. The frigate was spotted by two VA-95 A-6Es while they were flying surface combat air patrol for Joseph Strauss. Sahand fired missiles at the A-6Es, and the Intruders replied with two Harpoons and four laser-guided Skipper bombs. Joseph Strauss added a Harpoon. Most, if not all, of the U.S. weapons hit the Iranian ship. Fires blazing on Sahand's decks eventually reached her magazines, causing an explosion that helped sink the ship. Despite the loss of Sahand, one of Iran's most modern ships, the Iranian navy continued to fight. Late in the day, a sister ship, Sabalan, departed from its berth and fired a surface-to-air missile at several A-6Es from VA-95. Intruder pilot Engler dropped a laser-guided bomb on Sabalan, leaving the ship dead in the water. The Iranian frigate, stern partially submerged, was taken in tow by an Iranian tug.
Decommissioning
Joseph Strauss was decommissioned on 1 February 1990, transferred to Greece on 1 October 1992 and renamed Formion, for the Athenian Admiral Formion, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 January 1995. Greece decommissioned Formion on 29 July 2002 and the ship was sold as scrap 19 February 2004.
References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- Naval Vessel Register - DDG16
- USS Joseph Strauss DDG-16 at MaritimeQuest.com
- DDG-16 Personnel Roster at HullNumber.com
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