USS Hammerberg

History
Name	USS Hammerberg
Namesake	Francis P. Hammerberg
Builder	Bath Iron Works
Laid down	12 November 1953
Launched	20 August 1954
Commissioned	2 March 1955
Stricken	14 December 1973
Homeport	Naval Station Newport, RI
Fate	Sold for scrap, 14 June 1974
General characteristics
Class and type	Dealey-class destroyer escort
Displacement	1,877 long tons (1,907 t) full load
Length	314 ft 6 in (95.86 m)
Beam	36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Draft	18 ft (5.5 m)
Propulsion	list error: <br /> list (help); 2 × Foster-Wheeler boilers; 1 × De Laval geared turbine; 20,000 shp (15 MW); 1 shaft
Speed	27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h)
Range	6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h)
Complement	170
Armament	list error: <br /> list (help); • 4 × 3"/50 caliber guns; • 1 × Squid ASW mortar; • 6 × 324 mm (12.8 in) Mark 32 torpedo tubes; • Mark 46 torpedoes
Service record
Operations:	Cuban Missile Crisis

USS Hammerberg (DE-1015), a Dealey-class destroyer escort, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Navy diver Francis P. Hammerberg (1920–1945), of Flint, Michigan, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for rescuing two fellow divers from a wreck in Pearl Harbor.

Hammerberg was launched 20 August 1954 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, sponsored by Mrs. Elizabeth Moss; and commissioned 2 March 1955, Lieutenant Commander Murray E. Draper in command.

Based at Naval Station Newport R.I., Hammerberg participated in convoy exercises, trained students at the Fleet Sonar School, Key West, and conducted antisubmarine warfare exercises during her first 2½ years of service.

1950s

Hammerberg departed Newport 3 September 1957 to participate in maneuvers with units of NATO. Antisubmarine training in the Irish Sea was followed by visits to Plymouth, England and Brest, France, before the destroyer escort returned to Newport 21 October. Then, after hunter-killer exercises with aircraft carrier Tarawa (CVS-40), Hammerberg sailed from Newport 1 April 1958 to Bodø, Norway, to take part in combined exercises with the Royal Norwegian Navy. She returned to Boston 14 May.

During August and September 1958, the Hammerberg was part of Navy Task Force 88 (TF-88), during Operation Argus, which was involved in conducting nuclear tests in the very high atmosphere.

Departing Newport 27 January 1959, Hammerberg sailed to Guantanamo Bay for refresher training, then took part in antisubmarine warfare training with the navies of Chile and Peru. She returned to Newport 21 April.

1960s, including Cuban Missile Crisis==

Between May 1959 and February 1960, Hammerberg was busy with antisubmarine exercises interspersed with cruises to Newfoundland and Puerto Rico. In March and April, she participated in Amphibious operations at Onslow Beach, N.C., and deployed 23 August 1960 for her second South American cruise. Hammerberg returned to Newport 13 December.

Hammerberg departed Newport 7 August 1961 on her third South American cruise. In November, at the request of the Organization of American States (OAS), Hammerberg and other American ships patrolled offshore the Dominican Republic to help ensure the orderly change over of that government and check Communist influence. Hammerberg returned to Newport 1 December.

During 1962, Hammerberg participated in convoy escort operations and operated with the Fleet Sonar School in Key West. On 7 November, Hammerberg was en route south to NS Mayport, Fla., where she was diverted to patrol the Florida Coast during the Cuban missile crisis. On 29 November, after President John F. Kennedy had resolved the Cuban Crisis, she sailed for Newport, R.I., for a well-deserved rest and tender availability.

1963 found Hammerberg in the Boston Naval Shipyard. From June to November, she devoted time to "Unites IV"—a deployment which was to comprise the circumnavigation of South America in the conduct Of ASW operations with seven South American navies. On 30 November, Hammerberg preceded to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for participation in "PHIBASWEX I-63", a large-scale amphibious, ASW operation with over 30 other units of the Atlantic Fleet. On 17 December, she arrived Newport, R.I.

During 1964, Hammerberg participated in Operations "Springboard", "Canus Silex", and "Steel Pike", all exercises to sharpen the ship and crew not only in her important mission of locating and destroying submarines, but also in patrol, escort, rescue, evacuation, blockade and surveillance assignments.

On 8 February 1965, Hammerberg got underway for Northern Europe to join NATO "Match Maker I" Squadron in Exercise "Pilot High". On 3 May, the squadron left Lisbon for Operation "Pole Star" off Halifax, Nova Scotia. After return to Newport 20 July, Hammerberg went into repair at Boston Naval Shipyard. She then trained off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in August 1966 rendezvoused with escort Van Voorhis (DE-1028), guided missile frigate Leahy (DLG-16) and submarine Requin (SS-481) off Trinidad to participate in Operation "Unitas VII" through November.

[1967-1973]

March 29, 1967 - A Night in March

Preface: This account of the USS Hammerberg (DE 1015), a Dealey class destroyer escort built in 1954 at Bath Iron Works (Maine) and homeported in Newport, RI, is my firsthand recollection from almost fifty years ago. My memory is supplemented by the Hammerberg Deck Log. The names have not been changed.

Account: It was a cloudless, moonless, windless - and cold – late March night in 1967. Hammerberg was steaming in company with USS Essex (CVS 9) about 60 miles south of Newport. The Deck Log for the 20-24 watch (8pm-midnight) read “steaming as before. 2005 - maneuvering to take plane guard station 1,500 yards astern of Essex.” Twenty minutes before, we had been ordered by the Essex, as part of night flight operations, to act as plane guard to rescue downed pilots, as necessary.

Although current carrier practices called for helicopters to act as plane guards, night flight operations required that a surface ship serve as a backup. This night, four helos were stationed 1,000 yards astern of the carrier, with Hammerberg steaming another 500 yards behind off the port quarter. Both ships were in Darken Ship mode – no running or deck lights. The only lights visible were of planes landing, and the rotating red lights of the plane guard helicopters, SH3A Sikorsky Sea Kings. I was a newly-commissioned ensign serving as the Junior Officer of the Deck, (JOOD). Lt(jg) O.C. Wiegand was the OOD, (Officer of the Deck), and Lt(jg) Roger Karlebach was in CIC (Combat Information Center). About thirty minutes after commencing flight operations – 2214 - CIC reported one of the four helos was missing from radar. Simultaneously, Essex called Hammerberg using radio call names. “College City, Banknote. Be advised, we have lost one of our helos from radar” and giving a position about 2,000 yards off our port beam.

Momentarily, Banknote confirmed the helo downing and calmly assured us rescue was underway (in what I interpreted as a rather condescending tone) using one of the other helos. SH3A helos were often used for ASW (anti-submarine warfare) and plane guard duty.

In the meantime, the Skipper (LCdr Sirus Browning and XO, Lt. Dempsey Allgood) were called to the bridge, Bosun of the Watch sounded the Bosun’s whistle, piping the recovery detail to stations, and the running lights were turned on. The forward and after lookouts on watch had tossed lighted life-rings to mark our location. Soon there were 10-20 life-rings drifting in the calm, pitch-black sea, any one of which could have marked our path through the water. Within 10 minutes, we had maneuvered to within 500 yards of the downed helo, visible from the bridge using searchlights, floating upside-down. The rescuing helo approached, hovering above the half-submerged downed helo. Capt. Browning dispatched me to the foredeck, where I could serve as a second lookout. One of the 3 crew had climbed into an inflatable raft, illuminated by a search light on the starboard wing of the bridge. Standard rescue practice called for the crew to jump into the water from the raft to prevent wash from the helo blades capsizing the raft.

The hook and life-sling were lowered to within about five feet of the struggling crewman, the surface of the water whipped into a froth by the wash. As the crewman was reaching, grasping, for the life-sling, the helo suddenly – inexplicably - started to rise. We heard the rescuing helo over the secondary helo-to-carrier tactical radio frequency, “We have a mechanical problem, we are aborting this rescue and returning to ship.” The helo immediately lifted and tilted in flight toward the carrier, the half-released cable and life-sling dripping and dangling, trailing in the draft as the helo pulled away - and leaving the 1 remaining crew in the frigid ocean water. The life raft, blown by the wash, had disappeared into the blackness of the ocean night. Capt. Browning dispatched me to the foredeck to try to maintain visual contact with fallen crew, a first action in Man Overboard situations.

I recall the stillness of the crisp night air, standing on the foredeck forward of the 3” gun tub and anchor brake near the forward lookout; the noise from the ship’s engine, normally ever-present, was only a throb in my shoe soles; the perfect spot to listen. In the meantime, the motor whaleboat, crewed with a chief petty officer (CPO), 3rd class Boatswains Mate (BM3) as coxwain, a 2nd class signalman (SM2), a 2nd class Engineman (EM2), a 3rd class Radioman (RM3) and Seaman (SN) was lowered to the water’s edge as the ship barely maintained steerageway. Twelve minutes (2230) after sighting the wreckage, I heard the faint cry “Over here, over here”, about 200 yards off the port bow, and told the forward lookout to notify the bridge. The motor whaleboat cast off and steered toward the sound. However, the diesel engine drowned out communications between the bridge and the boat, and as the less effective alternative, signalmen flashed Morse Code between the bridge and the whaleboat. “2253 motor whaleboat recovered one man in unconscious condition and commenced to return to ship for immediate medical aid.” Thirty-nine minutes had elapsed since the downing. As Roger Karlebach recalls, 46 years later, a lieutenant jumped into the water from starboard amidships and helped hoist the unconscious pilot aboard. Four minutes after transferring the stricken man, Lt(jg) Michael F. Burns, the motor whaleboat set off again to search for other survivors, and tied two inflatable life rafts to the helo in hopes of keeping it afloat. Lt(jg) Burns condition – “in shock, unconscious, and suffering from apparent severe exposure”. At 2329, a flight surgeon from Essex was lowered from a helo to the Hammerberg fantail, and I led him to the mess deck, where Lt(jg) Burns had been laid on a table.

Hammerberg and the motor whaleboat continued into the Mid Watch to search for survivors. At 0100, the “helicopter wreckage was observed to sink”, and 45 minutes later the motor whaleboat was hoisted on deck. There were no other survivors.

At 0150, Lt(jg) Burns was declared dead. Hammerberg continued through midday randomly searching for debris, and gathering oil and water samples. Just after noon, Lt(jg) Burns’ remains were lifted from the fantail into a helo for transfer to the Essex.

Epilogue: I’ve pondered over the years why such a relatively insignificant event, especially during the Viet Nam war, would have been seared in my memory. My guess is that I had been charged by Capt. Browning to spot the downed pilot, but even when I did, I was helpless in saving him.

Written by Hugh Mattison 2/26/2013 Brookline, MA

Fate

Hammerberg was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register 14 December 1973. She was sold for scrapping 14 June 1974.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links