USS Leahy (CG-16)
_underway_in_the_Pacific_Ocean,_17_January_1983_(6408660).jpg)
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| period of service |
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|---|---|
| Ordered: | November 7, 1958 |
| Keel laying: | 3rd December 1959 |
| Launch: | July 1, 1961 |
| Commissioning: | 4th August 1962 |
| Decommissioning: | October 1, 1993 |
| Fate: | Canceled |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement: | 8281 tons |
| Length: | 162.5 meters |
| Width: | 16.8 meters |
| Draft: | 7.9 meters |
| Drive: | Two steam turbines, 85,000 hp, two screws |
| Crew: | Officers 37, men 408 |
The USS Leahy (DLG-16 / CG-16) was a guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy and lead ship of the Leahy-class . The ship is named after the Admiral William Daniel Leahy .
history
The Leahy was commissioned in 1958 and laid down at Bath Iron Works in late 1959 . After a year and a half of construction, the ship was launched and put into service in August 1962.
The Leahy carried out the first tests in the Caribbean, after which they called at their home port in Charleston, South Carolina . There the ship became the flagship of the cruiser-destroyer Flotilla 6 , and further test drives followed by mid-1964. In July 1964 the first mission followed, as part of the combat group around the USS Forrestal (CVA-59) , the Leahy drove into the Mediterranean, where it took part in several maneuvers by the Navy and NATO . The mission ended at the end of the year, further test drives were carried out in 1965, and from April 28 to May 7, the Leahy also served off the Dominican Republic .
At the end of 1965, she replaced the William V. Pratt (CG-13) in the Mediterranean, where she carried out further maneuvers. This lasted until April 1966, the rest of the year the ship spent on training trips and the UNITAS VII maneuver in the Caribbean, which was followed by a circumnavigation of the South American continent.
Beginning in 1967, the ship began an overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard , during which the weapon systems were modernized. The first tests followed on May 4, 1968, and on August 21, the Leahy arrived in her new home port in Norfolk. The next 12 months were spent with tests, from the end of July 1969 the Leahy took part in UNITAS X. 1970 began with further maneuvers on the way to a missile exercise with USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Belknap (CG-26) , the ships were diverted and started a high-speed march into the Mediterranean Sea, where a civil war began in Jordan . The mission lasted until the middle of 1971. In 1972, the fourth mission to Central European waters followed. A minor overhaul followed at the end of the year, followed by exercises in 1973.
Another voyage into the Mediterranean followed in 1974, this time for exercises and maneuvers alongside USS America (CV-66) . 1975 followed a trip to the Mediterranean and a visit to Leningrad , then the sixth trip to the Mediterranean. In the middle of the year the ship was reclassified from DLG-16 to CG-16 . The sixth was also the Leahy's last voyage into the Mediterranean, because at the beginning of 1976 the cruiser moved to San Diego, California and sailed in the Pacific fleet. In September of that year, the ship began another overhaul at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard , which took a year. The second half of 1977 was accordingly spent on test drives. 1978 was followed by an exercise in the Pacific ( RIMPAC ), then the first mission, where it ran aground when leaving Yokosuka and had to be repaired in the shipyard there. The ship spent the end of the year doing exercises with the USS Constellation (CV-64) . in February 1979 the Leahy docked again in San Diego.
In 1980 the Leahy took part in RIMRAC 80 from Pearl Harbor and began her second mission in the Pacific in May, which took her to the United States Naval Base Subic Bay and Singapore, among others . In September, the cruiser USS Midway (CV-41) and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) guarded Tehran during the hostage situation . At the end of the year, the Leahy finally entered the Gulf and served as an anti-aircraft ship off the coast of Saudi Arabia . The ship reached San Diego on December 4, 1980. In 1981 the weapons were modernized, among other things Leahy received eight AGM-84 Harpoon in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard .
1983 moved the Leahy again, among other things, she visited Hong Kong , again in 1984 with USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) , where she sailed in 1985, among other things, in the Persian Gulf. The next Pacific voyage followed in August 1986, again with Carl Vinson . Afterwards overhaul in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.
After further voyages, the Leahy took part in RIMPAC again in 1992, her eighth and final relocation began in December and led the cruiser to Somalia , where she supported Operation Restore Hope with USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) . At the beginning of 1993 she moved to the Persian Gulf.
On October 1 of that year, the Leahy was decommissioned and assigned to the reserve fleet in Suisun Bay . The ship was there until 2004 when it was towed to Beaumont (Texas) and canceled there by International Ship Recycling .
Web links
- ussleahy.com (Engl.)