USS Rupertus (DD-851)

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The Rupertus supports the burning Forrestal
The Rupertus supports the burning Forrestal
Overview
Keel laying May 2, 1945
Launch September 21, 1945
1. Period of service flag
Commissioning March 8, 1946
Decommissioning July 10, 1973
2. Period of service flag
Commissioning July 10, 1973
Decommissioning 1995
Whereabouts sunk
Technical specifications
displacement

3460  ts

length

119 m

width

12.5 m

Draft

4.4 m

crew

336

speed

36.8 kn

The USS Rupertus (DD-851) was a Gearing- class destroyer in service with the US Navy . The ship was named after the general of the US Marine Corps , William H. Rupertus (1889–1945).

history

The keel of the ship was laid on May 2, 1945 at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy (Massachusetts) . The ship was christened on September 21, 1945 by the second wife of General Rupertus, who died in March 1945. The commissioning and handover of the ship to the US Navy was on March 8, 1946. Commander William CF Robards became the first in command .

After the functional and operational tests in Guantanamo Bay and various visits to ports on the east coast , the ship was moved to the Pacific to San Francisco. During its transfer, the ship passed the Panama Canal .

At the beginning of 1946, the ship made various and alternating missions in the West Pacific and operations on the west coast of the United States .

When first used in 1947, the ship operated in the Far East, but mainly in the area around Tsingtao , China . After serving in the East Pacific in 1948, the ship returned to Tsingtao in 1949 and was one of the last three American ships to leave port before the port and city fell to the communists.

After the return of the ship to San Diego for operations and overhaul and repair work, left the ship San Diego on 13 November 1950 by the UN - fleet to operate in Korean waters. She then escorted the aircraft carrier USS Sicily from Sasebo , Japan to Hungnam , Korea . From May 14, 1951, the ship operated together with Blockade Task Force 95 (TF95) on the west coast of Korea and in the Yellow Sea . After leaving the TF 95, the ship drove to Wonsan , after which the ship stayed on the coast of Songju for ten days and fired thousands of shots at targets inland. The USS Rupertus suspended this combat support on July 4, 1951 when it returned to Inchon during armistice talks .

After returning to San Diego on August 8, 1951, the ship returned to the 7th Fleet on February 23, 1952 . The USS Rupertus was the first to operate with the aircraft carriers of the TF 77 and, together with the USS Manchester , occasionally bombarded land targets near Hungnam. In one of these operations, the USS Rupertus rescued a pilot from the aircraft carrier USS Boxer while the ship itself was under heavy enemy fire.

The ship returned to Long Beach Naval Shipyard on October 6, 1952 for repairs .

On May 16, 1953, the USS Rupertus left San Diego in the direction of the West Pacific and secured the heavy cruiser USS Bremerton as a member of TF77 and then took part in the shelling of targets in the interior of Korea. She then led a so-called hunter-killer exercise in Taiwanese waters, in which prospective Taiwanese Navy officers participated as part of a training and then took part in the centenary celebration on the occasion of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's first visit to Japan, before it returned to San Diego.

After the ceasefire agreement in Korea, the USS Rupertus participated annually in Exercise WestPac until 1960, when it was assigned Yokosuka as its new home port in 1960 .

On December 13, 1962, the ship returned to San Francisco for urgent repair and modernization work. This was followed by the renovation as part of the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization program , with the armament from the Second World War being replaced by modern, integrated anti-submarine armament ( ASW ), including ASROC and DASH . Then she was transferred to her port of transition in Long Beach , California . After the completion of the measures, the USS Rupertus ran back to Yokozuka on May 26, 1964 to take part in Operation Taiwan Patrol . After participating in the Tonkin incident , she sailed into the South China Sea and patrolled there until June 1965, when the ship was moved to the Far East to support the Gemini IV operations.

This was followed by her deployment in the waters around Vietnam, where the ship took part in Operation Market Time and also supported the US Army's ground operations with land target shelling. Operations as part of the Taiwan Patrol and patrols in the South China Sea followed again in 1966, interrupted only by support for the Gemini IX operations in May and June 1966.

The USS Rupertus returned to Long Beach on August 3, 1966 for re-deployment. A year later, the USS Rupertus left San Diego and headed for the Far East. It reached Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin in July 1967 . After several explosions - the Forrestal catastrophe - occurred on the USS Forrestal as a result of an accident , the USS Rupertus approached within six meters of the aircraft carrier and helped with fire fighting, cooling the ammunition magazines and saving the lives of many sailors went overboard during the accident.

Next, the USS Rupertus participated in Operation SeaDragon , the operation that involved blocking ports of the North Vietnamese. After the ship again assisted with the land target shelling inside the country, it returned to Long Beach, where it arrived on December 4, 1967.

Overhaul and repair work and exercises off the California coast followed. The USS Rupertus took part in exercise WestPac again and reached its "new" home port in Yokozuka, Japan on July 22nd. From August 14, 1967, she again supported the land target shelling and from August 29, 1967 participated in several missions in Operation Sea Dragon. During these missions the ship was again under fire from the enemy coastal defenses. After participating as a member of the Apollo 7 recovery team, the USS Rupertus returned to the waters of Vietnam and performed several missions there until its return to Yokozuka in 1968.

Operations in the Far East followed again from 1969 until the ship returned to San Diego on August 15, 1970. The rest of 1970 the ship was in the San Diego naval base, most of it in dry dock .

In 1971 and 1972 several participations in the WestPac followed, which lasted six months and alternated with exercises in the Pacific region off San Diego. After returning from one of their last ventures, the ship underwent an investigation by the INSURV commission in the spring of 1973 . The commission then determined that the ship was no longer suitable or operational for further missions.

HNS Kountouriotis (D-213)

After its decommissioning on July 10, 1973, the ship was given to the Greek Navy under a lending agreement. There she was put back into service as HNS Kountouriotis (D-213) and remained in active service with the Greek Navy until 1994. In 1995 the ship was finally decommissioned by the Greek Navy and sunk in 1998 as an artificial reef in Souda Bay , Crete .

Awards

The USS Rupertus was awarded seven Battle Stars for its missions in Vietnam.

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