Charles F. Adams-class destroyer
USS
Conyngham
on 1 August 1984
|
History
|
United States
|
Name
| Conyngham
|
Namesake
| Gustavus Conyngham
|
Ordered
| 21 July 1959
|
Builder
| New York Shipbuilding Corporation
|
Laid down
| 1 May 1961
|
Launched
| 18 May 1962
|
Acquired
| 1 July 1963
|
Commissioned
| 13 July 1963
|
Decommissioned
| 30 October 1990
|
Stricken
| 30 May 1991
|
Identification
| |
Motto
| Ready to Serve
|
Fate
| Scrapped
, 15 April 1994
|
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
| |
Speed
| 33
knots
(61 km/h; 38 mph)
|
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 and the hull mounted SQQ-23 Pair Sonar for DDG-2 through 19
- AN/SPS-40 Air Search Radar
|
Armament
| |
USS
Conyngham
(DDG-17)
, the third ship named for Captain
Gustavus Conyngham
USN (1744–1819), was a
Charles F. Adams
-class
guided missile armed
destroyer
in the
United States Navy
.
Conyngham
was laid down by the
New York Shipbuilding Corporation
at
Camden
in
New Jersey
on 1 May 1961, launched on 19 May 1962 by Mrs. Carl B. Albert, wife of Representative Albert of
Oklahoma
,
House Majority Leader
and commissioned on 13 June 1963.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Conyngham
was one of a few warships with shamrocks on her stacks (
USS
Coral Sea
(CV-43)
,
USS
The Sullivans
(DD-537)
and others for example).
[
citation needed
]
During her 27 years of commissioned service,
Conyngham
lived up to her motto,
Ready to Serve
. Her presence exerted a powerful influence during times of crisis and helped maintain peace as a component of NATO seapower throughout the Cold War period.
Conyngham
made 15 Mediterranean deployments?three to the Persian Gulf, seven to Northern Europe, and 11 deployments to the Caribbean. She distinguished herself during crises in Cyprus (1964, 1974); provided air cover for planes evacuating Americans from an insurrection in Amman, Jordan (1970); took part in contingency operations during the Arab-Israeli Yom-Kippur War (1973); was the escort combatant during the evacuation of Americans from Beirut, Lebanon (1976); and conducted Black Sea Freedom of Navigation operations (1979).
[
citation needed
]
During the 1980s,
Conyngham
continued to support United States foreign policy when she served off the coast of Libya (1982); was awarded the Navy Expeditionary Medal for providing naval gunfire support of Marines stationed in, and off the coast of, Beirut, Lebanon (1983) and monitored maritime traffic off the coast of Nicaragua (1983). She sailed with the
USS
America
(CV-66)
Battle Group in support of U. S. intervention forces in Grenada (1983). While deployed to the Caribbean in 1986,
Conyngham
was credited with four drug interdictions and was awarded the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal.
[
citation needed
]
Conyngham
continued superior performance as she escorted U. S. Flagged merchant shipping through the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War in 1987 in
Operation Earnest Will
. During that deployment she sortied from Bahrain on short notice and provided assistance to
USS
Stark
(FFG-31)
after she was hit by two anti-ship missiles launched by an Iraqi F-1 Mirage.
Conyngham
was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation for her efforts in assisting the crippled ship. In 1988,
Conyngham
continue the
Gus Can Do
tradition during her deployments to the Fjords of Norway and Northern Europe.
[
citation needed
]
A 16-year-old girl from
Cork
,
Ireland
stowed away aboard
Conyngham
in July 1988 during the 10-day return voyage to Norfolk. Eight sailors were found guilty of assisting her with the highest sentence being 70 days in the brig for hiding an illegal alien and aiding entry to the United States.
[2]
She was returned to Ireland
[3]
[4]
at which point she reported she was held against her will, drugged and sexually abused while on board.
[5]
No charges were filed with regard to claims of drugs and sexual abuse.
[2]
Conyngham
completed her fifteenth Mediterranean deployment and received her fourth Battle Efficiency "E" in 1989 while part of the
USS
Theodore Roosevelt
(CVN-71)
battlegroup.
[
citation needed
]
Mainspace fire
[
edit
]
Conyngham
suffered a severe fire on 8 May 1990, while conducting pre-deployment operations off the Virginia coast. A major fuel oil fire erupted from the ship's Forward Fire Room into the ship's superstructure, isolating the crew forward and aft, requiring an all-hands effort to extinguish it. The ship had just completed a maintenance availability and a fuel oil strainer had not been assembled properly by a contractor and not inspected to verify assembly by ships company. The result was that the assembly failed catastrophically and started a fuel oil fire, caused an officer to die, 18 other sailors to be injured and the ship to be decommissioned shortly thereafter.
USS
Normandy
(CG-60)
and
USS
Briscoe
(DD-977)
rendered assistance during the incident.
[6]
Decommissioning
[
edit
]
Conyngham
was decommissioned on 20 October 1990, stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register
on 31 May 1991 and sold for scrap on 15 April 1994.
Conyngham
was "broken up" in the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina in 1995.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1990
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Shipwrecks
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Other incidents
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