USS William V. Pratt (DDG 44)
_1987.jpg) The William V. Pratt 1987 on the high seas |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | July 23, 1956 |
| Keel laying | March 7, 1958 |
| Launch | March 16, 1960 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | 4th November 1961 |
| Decommissioning | September 30, 1991 |
| Whereabouts | Canceled |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
5800 tn.l. |
| length |
156.2 meters |
| width |
15.80 meters |
| Draft |
7.6 meters |
| crew |
21 officers, 356 sailors, possibly 19 staff |
| drive |
2 propellers, driven by 2 geared turbines; 85,000 hp |
| speed |
34 knots |
| Armament |
1 double-arm launcher for missiles |
The USS William V. Pratt (DLG-13 / DDG-44) was a destroyer commander and later a guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy . The ship belonged to the Farragut class .
history
The Pratt was commissioned from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1956 and laid down there in 1958. The ship was launched on March 16, 1960. The ship was named after the former Chief of Naval Operations William Veazie Pratt . Godmother was his widow. The commissioning took place in November 1961.
After the test drives, the first use took place in 1963. The ship left its home port of Norfolk , Virginia and took part in the NATO exercise Riptide IV , which took place on the European side of the Atlantic. Until the first overhaul in 1966, the ship took part in other trips to the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.
On April 15, 1966, the Pratt changed her home port to Mayport , Florida and from July moved to the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean. A year later, on June 20, 1967, the destroyer moved to the Pacific for the first time, where she took part in the Vietnam War . Operating from the United States Naval Base Subic Bay , the ship served in the Gulf of Tonkin for Combat Search and Rescue . The mission with a total of three phases in the Gulf of Tonkin ended on January 16, 1968 when the Pratt reached Mayport. This was followed by a six-month overhaul in the Charleston Naval Shipyard . In the following four years, four more relocations to the Mediterranean followed.
In 1972 the Pratt was officially decommissioned and modernized in its shipyard. After the work was decided in October 1973, the destroyer was put back into service. She was also relocated to Charleston , South Carolina . The first deployment from the new home port led the Pratt into the Mediterranean, where exercises with the carriers USS Independence (CV-62) and USS Saratoga (CV-60) were carried out.
In 1975 the reclassification followed, from now on the Pratt was a guided missile destroyer and carried the identification number DDG-44 . After UNITAS XVI , which took place in the summer , the ship docked on December 15 for overhauls in the Charleston Naval Shipyard , where she remained until March 1976. From autumn onwards, the destroyer moved to the Mediterranean again to protect the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42) . In the following year, the Pratt circled the South American continent as part of UNITAS XIX .
In 1982 the Pratt operated off the coast of Lebanon . In 1984 and 1987 further relocations to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea followed, followed by exercises in Norwegian waters in 1989. In 1990 the destroyer assisted the United States Coast Guard in enforcing US security interests.
1991 took Pratt as protection for the Saratoga and the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) on the Operation Desert Storm in part. The Pratt was officially decommissioned in September and subsequently canceled.
Web links
- Pratt in DANFS (Engl.)