USS John Paul Jones (DD-932)

	; USS John Paul Jones (DD-932)
Overview
Type	destroyer
Keel laying	January 18, 1954
Launch	May 7, 1955
period of service	April 5, 1956 - ; December 15, 1982
Whereabouts	sunk
Technical specifications
displacement	4,619 tons
length	127.50 meters
width	13.80 meters
Draft	6.7 meters
crew	324
drive	Two steam turbines, 70,000 hp, two screws

The USS John Paul Jones (DD-932) was a destroyer in the United States Navy and belonged to the Forrest Sherman class . It was named after the navigator John Paul Jones and served in the Navy from 1956. Between 1965 and 1967 it was converted into a guided missile destroyer modeled on the Decatur class and given the hull number DDG-32 . The destroyer remained in service until 1982.

history

The John Paul Jones was laid down on January 18, 1954 at Bath Iron Works in Bath , Maine . The launch took place on May 7, 1955, the commissioning on April 5, 1956. From her home port of Newport , Rhode Island , the first voyages took the destroyer to the Caribbean as well as to Scotland in the birthplace of the namesake.

In 1957 the first Mediterranean mission followed with the sixth US fleet, and in the fall it took part in NATO maneuvers in the North Atlantic. The year 1958 spent the John Paul Jones in the Caribbean and the Atlantic off the US coast, followed by another deployment in the Mediterranean in 1959. In 1960 she operated mostly off the American coast, in the summer she took part in the Unitas maneuver with South American ships. In the following year, the ship stayed in the Caribbean and took part in several anti-submarine exercises, in April 1962 she was part of the American Fleet Show. During Walter Schirra's space flight in October 1962, the destroyer belonged to the Atlantic salvage fleet, after which it took part in the sea blockade off Cuba during the Cuba crisis . In the first half of 1963, another mission followed in the Mediterranean, the rest of the year and the first half of 1964, the ship spent with exercises off the home coast. In June 1964, the John Paul Jones sailed into the Mediterranean again with the 6th US fleet, and in 1965 she was part of the salvage fleet for Gemini 3 . After another Mediterranean mission in the summer, the ship was decommissioned on December 20, 1965 in Philadelphia . In the following year and a half, the ship was converted into a guided missile destroyer in the Philadelphia Navy Yard .

John Paul Jones 1980

In March 1967, the John Paul Jones was reclassified as DDG-32, the conversion and equipping with new radar systems and a tartar starter was completed in the fall of that year. She was now assigned to the Pacific Fleet and operated with the 7th US Fleet. In 1975 John Paul Jones took part in Operation Frequent Wind , the evacuation of Saigon, as part of Task Force 76 .

After 26 years of service, the John Paul Jones was decommissioned December 15, 1982, but until 1986 she remained in the reserve fleet. On January 31, 2001, the cannibalized hull was sunk during an exercise off the California coast as a target ship for weapons tests.

Web links

USS John Paul Association (Engl.)
Pictures of John Paul Jones at navsource.org